The New States Alaska And Hawaii

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Linefoerry, William P. ,
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The new States: Alaska
and Hawaii.
1963.

THE REFERENCE SHELF VOLUME 35 NUMBER 5

THE NEW STATES:
ALASKA AND HAWAII

EDITED BY WILLIAM P. LINEBERRY

Associate Editor, Foreign Policy Association

THE H. W. WILSON COMPANY
NEW YORK 1963

THE REFERENCE SHELF

The books in this series reprint articles, excerpts from books, and
addresses on current issues, social trends, and other aspects of American
life, and occasional surveys of foreign countries. There are six separately
bound numbers in each volume, all of which are generally published in
the same calendar year. One number is a collection of recent speeches
on a variety of subjects; each of the remaining numbers is devoted to a
single subject and gives background information and discussion from
varying points of view, followed by a comprehensive bibliography.

Subscribers to the current volume receive the books as issued. The
subscription rate is $12 ($15 foreign) for a volume of six numbers.
The price of single numbers is $3 each.

Copyright 1963

By The H. W. Wilson Company

Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 63-21856

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

PREFACE

Surely no two states in the American Union of fifty are as
alike and yet as different as the new states, Alaska and
Hawaii.

Consider the striking similarities: Both states are the latest to
join the Union, having come to each other's aid in the long and
agonizing quest for entry. Both are the only noncontiguous states,
Alaska being separated from the mainland forty-eight by another
nation (Canada) , Hawaii by a vast expanse of ocean (the Pacific) .
Both states (even if for vastly different reasons) are considered
tourist paradises and are heavily dependent upon tourism for
their livelihood. Both play a key role in the nation's defense
Alaska bulking within sight of the Soviet Union across the Bering
Strait, Hawaii anchored in the Pacific as a forward staging area
for America's Far Eastern defenses. Both states have advanced
political systems, with up-to-date constitutions that are models of
progressive good government. And in spirit, both are character-
ized by the same open-hearted friendliness, the same congenial
attitude of tolerance and brotherhood, from which the other
states might well take example.

Despite these and other similarities, however, the two states
are dramatically the opposite of each other in many ways. Alaska
is the largest and least densely populated. Hawaii is one of the
smallest and most densely populated. Alaska's rugged, frozen
wildernesses contrast sharply with Hawaii's balmy, sun-drenched
tropicality. The one has an electrifying frontier history of men
battling nature and the elements for gold and for land. The
other embodies the romantic tale of a lush island kingdom
wrapped in charm and innocence.

Together, the new states make a fascinating study in same-
ness, contrast and paradox. Having entered the Union less than a
decade ago, how are Alaska and Hawaii faring under their new
status? What advances have come with statehood? What prob-
lems? And what are their prospects for the future, now that the
initial excitement of a new and coveted standing has simmered
down? i,;,,., '.'

4 THE REFT-TfENCE SHELF

The first section of this book attempts to recapture the historic
moments when Alaska and Hawaii won statehood. How was it
achieved, what did it mean, and where did the new states stand
upon entering the Union? The next section is devoted to contem-
porary life and society in the new states, with special attention
going to the "native" problem in Alaska and interracial relations
in Hawaii. The third and fourth sections explore the political
and economic meaning of statehood, respectively. New responsi-
bilities have brought new burdens and new opportunities. How
are Alaska and Hawaii dealing with these emerging conditions?
The fifth and final section deals with defense, a matter of
crucial concern to both states.

The compiler wishes to thank the authors and publishers who
have courteously granted permission for the reprinting of their
materials in this book. I would also like to thank the staffs of
Senators Ernest Gruening and E. L. Bartlett of Alaska and Sena-
tor Hiram L. Fong of Hawaii for their cooperation and assistance.
I am especially indebted to Katherine Woodroofe, whose able
assistance in preparing the manuscript proved invaluable and
made light an otherwise difficult task,

WILLIAM P. LINEBEKRY
September 1963

CONTENTS
PREFACE 3

I. ALASKA AND HAWAII ENTER THE UNION

Editor's Introduction 9

Alaska's Rugged Past 10

Map: Alaska Senior Scholastic 11

Robert B. Atwood. Alaska's Struggle for Statehood

State Government 14

Thomas B. Stewart. What Statehood Means to Alaska

State Government 25

Background on the Forty-ninth State

Social Legislation Information Service Bulletin 32

Hawaii's Exotic Past 40

Map: Hawaii News Explorer 41

Lawrence H. Fuchs. Hawaii's Struggle for Statehood 46

Robert M. Kamins. What Statehood Means to Hawaii ....
State Government 58

James A. Michener. Background on the Fiftieth State

New York Times Magazine 65

II. LIFE AND SOCIETY IN THE NEW STATES

Editor's Introduction 74

6 THE REFERENCE SHELF

Harry Kursh. Life in Alaska 75

Wendell H. Oswalt. A Look at Alaska's Natives

Americas 87

Theodore B. Hetzel. Problems Facing Alaska's Natives ....
Indian Truth 93

Andrew W. Lind. Race Relations Frontiers in Hawaii 99

Andrew W. Lind. Race and Opportunity in Hawaii

Social Process 111

III. THE POLITICAL MEANING OF STATEHOOD

Editor's Introduction 114

John S. Hellenthal. How Alaska Is Governed

American Bar Association Journal 1 15

Ernest Gruening. Alaska's Achievements Under Statehood
Congressional Record 122

Paul G Bartholomew and Robert M. Kamins. How Hawaii
Is Governed American Bar Association Journal 125

W. Brooke Graves. Hawaii's Centralized Government 135

Gene Smith. Gains from Simplified Rule in Hawaii

: New York Times 140

IV. THE ECONOMIC MEANING OF STATEHOOD

Editor's Introduction 144

Ivan Bloch. Alaska's Economy: A Summation

Financial Analysts Journal 144

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 7

Alaska's Economic Problems U.S. News & World Report 159

Richard Austin Smith. Hawaii's Economy: Prospects and
Problems Fortune 165

V. THE PROBLEM OF DEFENSE

Editor's Introduction 185

Hanson W. Baldwin. Arctic Outpost in the Cold War

New York Times Magazine 185

Ernest Gruening and Richard L. Neuberger. Military Neglect
of Alaska Charged Congressional Record 189

Alaska: First Line of Defense

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner 192

Hawaii's Defense-Geared Economy 194

BIBLIOGRAPHY 197

1. ALASKA AND HAWAII ENTER
THE UNION

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

Both states have a word for it. In Alaska it's cheechako. In
Hawaii it's malihini. They mean the same newcomer a word
that fittingly describes the condition of the latest states to join
the American Union, Alaska and Hawaii. Like newcomers every-
where, the new states are not without their problems, as succeed-
ing sections of this book will indicate. But first, for perspective,
a flashback to those happy and hectic days attending statehood is
in order.

Alaska and Hawaii were admitted to the Union in 1958 and
1959, respectively. Congressional approval climaxed decades of
petitioning, maneuvering, and beseeching by territorial delegates
determined to add new stars to the flag. In the final moments,
it was only through the mutual bolstering of each other's cause
that statehood, somewhat rapidly and surprisingly, became a
reality. How and why did Alaska and Hawaii win admission to
the Union? And what did admission mean for the "other forty-
eight"?

The first four articles in this section discuss Alaska's history
and its admission in 1958, the last four Hawaii's history and its
admission in 1959. Following a brief historical survey, an
Alaskan publisher describes his state's continuing endeavor to
enter the Union, detailing the strategy that brought final victory.
In the third article an active participant in the Alaskan statehood
drive explains the advantages political and economic which
statehood was expected to bring. The next article presents a fact-
and-figure breakdown of the status of the forty-ninth state, its
population resources and relation to the Federal Government, in
the year of admission.

After an introductory historical sketch, "Hawaii's Struggle for
Statehood 1 ' gives a detailed and lively account of Hawaii's efforts
to enter the Union. The next article presents a resident's view of
what statehood means to Hawaii in terms of self-rule, the transi-

10 THE REFERENCE SHELF

tion from territorial status, and the economic and social impact
on both Hawaii and the United States as a whole. In the final
article, the noted novelist James A. Michener provides a glowing
description of the fiftieth state, its people and culture, in the year
of admission.

ALASKA'S RUGGED PAST 1

Some historical and geographical experts believe that Asia and
North America were connected by a land bridge long before the
period of recorded history. Wandering native tribes from the
continent of Asia came across this bridge to North America.
While some of those dark-skinned people settled in Alaska, others
went south to what is now Canada and the United States. This
theory also explains the apparent similarities between the Alaskan
natives and other North American Indian tribes.

As early as 1579, a Russian Cossack named Yermak, in search
of furs, had conquered Siberia for the Czars. By 1650, a perma-
nent Russian settlement had been established at Anadyrsk, on
the Bering Sea, within about four hundred miles of Alaska's
nearest point. Russia was interested in further exploration to the
east, but could not continue it because she became involved in a
series of wars with China.

Russian Exploration and Settlement

Almost a century passed before the Russians ventured in the
direction of Alaska again. In 1724, Peter the Great, a powerful
and ambitious Czar, ordered Captain Vitus Bering, a Dane who
had been in the Czar's service since childhood, to explore the
land east of Siberia and see whether Asia and America were
joined. Bering outfitted an expedition at Okhotsk, a village on
the Siberian mainland across the Sea of Okhotsk from Kam-
chatka, a large peninsula of southeastern Siberia. In 1728 he
sailed into the sea now named for him and sighted the St. Law-
rence Islands and the Diomedes. But winter was approaching
rapidly, and he returned to Russia without seeing the mainland
of Alaska.

1 From A Pocket Guide to Alaska, pamphlet prepared by the Office of Armed Forces
Information and Education. (DOD Pam 2-9) Department of Defense. Washington 25,
D.C. '56. P 6-15.

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 11

ALASKA

From Senior Scholastic. 56:10. My. 17, '50. Reprinted by permission from Senior
Scholastic. 1950 by Scholastic Magazines, Inc.

Bering organized another expedition in 1740, and with two
ships again set sail for Alaska. Chirikof, in command of one of
the ships, sailed along the southeastern coast and lost a landing
party to hostile natives near Sitka. In the meantime, Bering
skirted the south-central coast and made a landing near Mount
St. Elias. On the way back his ship stranded on Bering Island
where he and half of his men died from hardship and scurvy.
The remnants of the expedition, after enduring more hardships,
finally returned to Kamchatka and made their way back to
Russia.

Stimulated by the explorers' tales of fabulous wealth in the
newly discovered land, Russian fur traders and trappers began to

12 THE REFERENCE SHELF

enter the area. These exploiters gradually depleted the country
of furs and almost exterminated the sea otter. They enslaved the
Aleuts and made war on the Indians. Everything went out of
Alaska, and nothing came in.

By 1800 a few Russian settlements had been established at
Kodiak and on the Pribilof Islands. In the following years others
sprang up along the mainland coasts of Alaska and Canada. At
one time the Russians actually had a settlement at what is now
Ross, Calif ornial

Russian activity in and around Alaska aroused the interest of
other nations eager to cash in on the rich fur trade. Between
1774 and 1780, explorers from Spain and England made surveys
along the Alaskan coast. It was Bering's explorations, however,
that gave Russia her claim to northwestern North America.

Wholesale killing of Alaska's natives was somewhat reduced
when the Russian-American Company was organized in 1799.
The company's charter, granted by the Czar, required it to pro-
mote discovery and commerce and to spread the Russian Ortho-
dox faith, a branch of the Christian religion. One of the early
directors of this company was Alexander Baranof, whose word
was law and who ruled accordingly. Under his direction, Sitka,
the Russian capital of Alaska, became a highly cosmopolitan
town and an extremely active business and trading center. It was
Baranof and Russian missionary priests who founded the churches
with their bulb-like steeples . . . principally in the Aleutians,
at Kodiak, and at Sitka. . . .

Reward's Folly"

As early as 1855 the Russian Czar tried to sell Alaska to the
United States. He feared Great Britain might take it anyway,
because Russia was losing the Crimean War to Britain. Russia
had other troubles, too. Her attention was being turned more
and more toward Europe because of Prussia's growing military
strength. For these reasons Russia believed that Alaska was a
definite liability.

Soon after the American Civil War ended, the Czar sent
Baron de Stoeckl, an able diplomat, to Washington. The Czar's
instructions were simple: Get rid of Alaskasell it if possible,
give it away if necessary.

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 13

After a considerable period and many conferences, the United
States Secretary of State, William H. Seward, and the Baron
finally signed a treaty on 30 March 1867, on behalf of their
respective countries, for the United States to purchase Alaska for
$7.2 million.

Seward was severely criticized for agreeing to purchase Alaska.
Many persons called the region "Seward's Folly" or "Seward's
Icebox," because it was generally believed that the land was abso-
lutely worthless. But, after much controversy, the United States
Senate finally approved the treaty, and on 18 October 1867, the
Great Land became American property. The Russian flag was
lowered and Old Glory was hoisted.

Still smarting at spending the sum of 2 cents an acre for
what was thought to be an ice heap, Congress paid practically
no attention to the new district (which became a territory in
1912) for about seventeen years. During this period there was no
civil government in Alaska, but it was governed at various times
from Washington by the Army, the Navy, and the Treasury
Department. Little exploration was done and little use was made
of its natural resources.

But were Seward alive today, few critical voices would be
heard. From almost any standpoint the decision to buy Alaska
has proved to be wise. Exports of fish, gold, and furs alone have
repaid its purchase price many times over; and the land is rich
in untapped resources. The production of gold, incidentally, has
amounted to about $660 million.

Gold!

Who hasn't heard of gold strikes in Alaska? Klondike, Nome,
Fairbanks, and others 1 The first strike was made in the Klondike
in 1898. (Actually, the Klondike region is in Canada, but its most
accessible route, before the airplane, was through southeastern
Alaska via Skagway and the treacherous Chilkoot Pass.) Before
the Klondike strike subsided, a fresh gold rush began at Nome.
Within a few months eighteen thousand people jammed the
short, desolate Nome beach in a feverish scramble. Again in
1902, the magic word of "gold" came from the interior, and the
"sourdoughs" (oldtimers) rushed to Fairbanks.

14 THE REFERENCE SHELF

During this period hard-boiled adventurers, miners, confi-
dence men, gamblers, and opportunists came to Alaska by the
thousands. Lights blazed in hotel lobbies until dawn. Bars and
gambling houses never closed their doors, and beneath their
chandeliers pistols barked and knives flashed. Our early West
was tame compared to this period in Alaska's history!

Fantastic prices accompanied the early gold strikes. Cheap
whisky was dispensed across bars at $10 a shot. A few eggs were
available at a dollar each. Turkey dinners cost $175 apiece.
Traders, who set up shop right after the first stampeders arrived,
reaped high profits selling grub, clothing, and equipment. No
wonder pennies went out of fashion during this period every-
thing was on the "gold standard"! (As a matter of fact, in the
interior of Alaska, until recently, a quarter was the smallest coin
in general circulation.)

Much has been written about the fabulous gold strikes. Ad-
venture stories and poetry favorites of many Americans tell
about the men who made fortunes, those who went broke, and
those who died in the stampedes. Rex Beach, Robert Service, and
Jack London are some of the better-known writers who "panned"
the literary gold. To this day Hollywood is mining that rich
lode.

Although there haven't been any big gold strikes in recent
years, interest in mining still runs high. Today a few "sour-
dough" prospectors roam the hills, but modern mining is scien-
tific. Engineering know-how has replaced hit-or-miss methods;
necessary capital for mining operations now comes from cautious
investors rather than from get-rich-quick "wildcatters."

ALASKA'S STRUGGLE FOR STATEHOOD 2

The idea, or dream, of statehood for Alaska dates back to the
time of its purchase by the United States from Russia in 1867.

Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, in a learned speech
supporting ratification of the treaty of purchase, dedicated Alaska
to future statehood. Two years after the purchase, Secretary of
State William H. Seward, whose vision and courage brought

2 Article by Robert B. Atwood, editor and publisher of the Anchorage (Alaska)
Daily Times, chairman of the Alaska Statehood Committee, 1949-1959. State Govern-
ment. 31:202-8. Autumn *58. Reprinted by permission.

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 15

about the purchase, said in a speech at Sitka that Alaska would
some day be one of the great states of the Union. . . . The
enthusiasm of those two men, however, was not shared by the
rest of Washington officialdom. Alaska was generally deemed of
little value and was ignored.

Congress was the ultimate authority on everything pertaining
to the new American territory, and the prevailing sentiment in
that body was a disparaging one. The members' attitude was
that the nation was "stuck" with the useless northland area,
and "we'll run it with the least expense possible."

As a result of this attitude, the courageous Americans who
went to Alaska found that they lived in a state of anarchy.
There were no laws, no government in any form. People in
Alaska could not own property. They could not marry. Upon
death they could not be sure that the beneficiaries they named
would get so much as their prospector's pick.

The first political activity of Alaskans was to seek some form
of government. Nothing as refined as statehood was within the
realm of possibility. They sent delegations to Washington re-
questing "any form of civil government." Seventeen years after
the purchase, in 1884, Congress passed the first basic law and it
proved to be totally inadequate.

Alaskans continued sending representatives to Congress re-
questing more adequate government. In 1906, just thirty-nine
years after the purchase, Congress created the post of Delegate
to Congress so that Alaskans could quit sending delegations at
their own expense. The delegate, a voteless member of Congress,
was to be their "voice."

In 1912, Congress enacted an Organic Act to replace the old
law of 1884. It created a territorial legislature with powers so
limited that it crippled its effectiveness.

First Moves for Statehood

Statehood became of real interest to Alaskans in 1915 after
they realized that they would never be able to do much with
their homeland without it.

The first forty-eight years of American ownership had brought
more frustrations than anything else. What little government
there was had been rendered ineffectively, by men not elected or
responsible to the people they governed.

16 THE REFERENCE SHELF

First sentiment for statehood crystallized at Valdez, a city
which was then a thriving political center in western Alaska.
O. P. Hubbard, a territorial senator from Valdez, introduced a
bill in the legislature memorializing Congress to grant state-
hood. ... .

Delegate James Wickersham introduced the first statehood bill
in Congress on March 30, 1916. In his diary he noted that he
selected that date because it was the forty-ninth anniversary of
the signing of the treaty of purchase. The bill was referred to a
committee and died.

Tax Issue

Delegate Wickersham had his hands full in a battle which
involved protecting the powers of the little government Alaska
had.

The territorial legislature had levied a small tax on the
salmon fisheries in Alaska. The packers, most of whom lived in
the Pacific Northwest and the East, had turned to the courts and
to Congress for protection from such a surprising turn of events.
The packers had operated without any taxes up to then.

In Congress, the Bureau of Fisheries, the Secretary of Com-
merce and President Wilson favored legislation that would
exempt the fisheries from territorial taxation. Delegate Wicker-
sham succeeded in having the bill defeated only by convincing
the Congressmen that the multimillion-dollar industry was ex-
ploiting the resources of Alaska at the expense of the American
taxpayers living in the states.

The fish interests took their complaints to court and argued
that the territorial legislature had no authority to tax either the
fishing or mining industries. The courts, however, upheld the
taxing powers of the territory.

This was the first pitched battle between the fish interests and
Alaskans. It is of historical interest because it continued many
years after this incident. The fish packers had opposed every
effort of Alaskans to establish a government They opposed the
Organic Act of 1884, the delegate's seat in 1906 and the legis-
lature in 1912. Indeed, it was the fish opposition that delayed
the realization of those small steps toward self-government. . . .

The tax problem proved an absorbing one for Alaskans, but
the nation was fascinated by the statehood proposal in Delegate

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 17

Wickersham's bill. Many newspapers gave it support.

Opponents, however, came up with the arguments that were
to be heard for the nevt forty-two years. They contended that
Alaska was not read>, could not afford it, had insufficient re-
sources and the population was too sparse and migratory. . . .

The first sixty-six years of American ownership had wit-
nessed the gigantic efforts and the small successes of Alaskans in
getting the first semblance of government, and the first collisions
with the fish packers.

The first successes sharpened the awareness of Alaskans to the
need for the traditional American form of self-government. The
collisions with the packers served to identify their main enemy
and drew battle lines that endured down to the final roll call
on statehood in the United States Senate in 1958.

Changes in the Thirties

Changes came to Alaska under President Franklin D. Roose-
velt in 1933 just as they did for the rest of the nation.

He appointed Harold L. Ickes as Secretary of the Interior, a
man who seemed to appreciate the czar-like powers over Alaskan
affairs and enjoyed using them.

Ickes jolted Alaskans out of the apathetic attitude that pre-
vailed. He compelled them to widen their concern beyond their
small business ventures and community problems.

He proposed colonization schemes involving the introduction
of large foreign populations into Alaska. He proposed making
the Rat Islands in the Aleutian chain a penal colony. He for-
bade the issuance of patents to homesteaders because he dis-
approved of the separation of any more land from the public
domain. In this action he proved himself more powerful than
the United States Congress. His rule superseded and replaced the
land laws enacted by Congress.

Statehood Movement Revived

Alaskans were . . . alarmed when he proposed a tax of
8 per cent on the gross production of gold mines. They were
convinced it would force many mines to be abandoned. The tax
proposal brought Alaskans together in a new movement for
statehood as a means of eliminating the rule of Ickes.

18 THE REFERENCE SHELF

In 1939, the Anchorage Pioneer Lodge by resolution asked the
territorial legislature to name a committee to study statehood.
The organization condemned Ickes as making "Alaska's venture
in home rule a bitter and regrettable jest."

The sentiments of the pioneers found ready acceptance by
Alaska's governor, Dr. Ernest Gruening. Gruening had been
appointed by the President over the objection of the Secretary of
the Interior.

The outbreak of World War II brought an upheaval in
Alaska. The military "discovered" the strategic value of the
territory. Roads, docks, airports and housing were built in crash
programs. Military leaders pleaded with Congress to enact meas-
ures assisting community growth because "we can't defend a
wilderness."

The wartime prosperity gave the territory an economic lift
that revived the lagging statehood movement.

On April 2, 1943, Congress for the first time since 1916
received the statehood bill. It was introduced by Senator Wil-
liam Langer (Republican) of North Dakota on behalf of him-
self and Senator Pat McCarran (Democrat) [of] Nevada. This
was the start of a bipartisan effort that was to meet with success
fifteen years later.

Alaska's Delegate to Congress, Anthony J. Dimond, followed
with a similar bill, introduced December 3, 1943. Both the
Senate and House bills were referred to a committee and died,
but the spark they kindled would not die.

The new generation of Alaskans undertook studies of the
duties, responsibilities and privileges that would come with
statehood. When the Seventy-ninth Congress convened in 1944
new statehood bills were introduced. Alaskans were optimistic
because both political parties had included statehood for Alaska
and Hawaii in their platforms. The war precluded progress,
however. Four Federal departments War, Navy, Justice and
Interior recommended against action for the duration.

Postwar Action

It was in 1945, after the war had ended, that the statehood
movement got under way in earnest. Thousands of veterans came
to Alaska to find homes. Sentiment in favor of statehood grew

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII It

with the population. Opponents became scarce, and those who-
were identified as opposed declined to appear publicly with their
arguments. Senators Langer and McCarran reintroduced their
bills. Representative Ervin [Democrat] of North Carolina put
one in the House. The Alaska delegate always had one pending.

In August 1945, Secretary Ickes surprised Alaskans by going,
on record in favor. The territorial legislature memorialized Con-
gress for favorable action and also provided for a referendum
vote at which all Alaskans could express themselves.

Advocates of statehood formed the Alaska Statehood Associ-
ation for the purpose of sponsoring research and informational
work which could be the base for an intelligent vote in the
referendum. . . .

The referendum resulted in a vote of 9,630 for, and 6,822
against, statehood. This proved to be a great impetus for the-
statehood movement.

In 1947 the first Congressional hearings were held. Alaskans
flew to Washington to testify, following which the committee,
with Representative Fred L. Crawford [Republican] of Michigan
as chairman, came to Alaska and heard 150 more Alaskans. The-
committee reported favorably on the bill.

The bill, however, died in the Rules Committee. The mem-
bers did not allow it to go to the floor for debate. But death of
the bill did not kill statehood. The 1949 territorial legislature
created the Alaska Statehood Committee and appropriated $80,000
for it to use in promoting statehood legislation, making studies
of transitional problems and compiling information to aid dele-
gates to a constitutional convention.

Stepping up the Pace

Creation of the committee took the initiative out of the hands
of volunteers who, up to that point, had been carrying full re-
sponsibility. Statehood became a part of the official territorial
program-
After the committee was created, an organized effort toward
statehood was initiated. As a result, many national organizations
such as lodges, civic groups, labor unions and others adopted
resolutions in behalf of Alaska statehood. A national committee
of prominent Americans for statehood was organized.

20 THE REFERENCE SHELF

The House committee held hearings again and reported the
bill favorably in 1949. The movement gained more and more
prestige and power.

In 1950 a Gallup poll showed the public 81 per cent for, 8
per cent against, and 11 per cent no opinion. The House voted
186 to 146 to pass it, and another big victory for Alaska statehood
was noted.

The bill then moved to the Senate, and Alaskans chartered an
airplane to take fifty-five witnesses to Washington. They were
dismayed, upon arrival, to find certain members of the committee
hostile. W. C. Arnold, managing director of the Alaska Salmon
Industry, Inc., had made a private presentation of the packers'
arguments at a luncheon the day before. He had given the sena-
tors copies of his testimony, with charts and graphs, nicely bound
in a leatherette cover.

Undaunted, the Alaskans presented their testimony over a
period of one week. They also listened to Arnold give his testi-
mony formally, reading from the document he had already pre-
sented to the senators privately.

The senators held the matter under advisement for almost
two months after the hearings and then reported favorably. The
Alaskans had done what they had been told was impossible.
The merits of statehood had outweighed the elaborate opposition
presented by Arnold.

During the two months' waiting period, the committee in-
vented a new land formula for the proposed state of Alaska.
Instead of granting lands from the public domain by chance of
surveyed numbers, they provided for Alaska to select the land in
large blocks regardless of survey. This was the origin of the
generous land provisions that made the Alaska statehood bill
unique.

Despite the favorable report and enthusiastic support by
Chairman O'Mahoney of the Senate committee, the bill was not
allowed to come to the floor of the Senate. It died with the
Eighty-first Congress without further action.

New bills went into the Eighty-second Congress immediately
after it convened. The leadership decided that inasmuch as the
House had acted favorably before, the first action should now
come from the Senate.

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 21

The Senate committee held executive sessions and approved
the bill without delay. The bill carried the names of nineteen
senators as authors. When it went to the floor for action, how-
ever, a Republican-Southern Democratic coalition prevented en-
actment. They recommitted it to the committee with a margin of
one vote, 45 to 44.

This action came at the end of eleven days of debate over a
period of four weeks. The outcome was a setback, but the close-
ness of the vote added to the prestige of the legislation. It was
obvious then that the bill would pass if it could be brought to
a vote again. But it required five more years to bring about that
vote.

Another Fresh Start

Alaskans started all over again with new legislation when the
Eighty-third Congress convened in 1958. They were braced by
the platforms of both political parties, an impressive legislative
history and growing sentiments in favor. They were surrounded
by strength, but their forces had one great weakness. Certain key
men in the Interior Department were cool toward statehood or
were known opponents.

Despite this gap s statehood was a lively issue. Representative
John P. Saylor (Republican) of Pennsylvania proved an effective
new leader for statehood.- He pressed for action on Alaska while
the Administration at that time sought action only on Hawaii.

Further maneuvers appeared. The Democrats feared that
Hawaii would be approved and Alaska left wanting statehood, so
they combined the two bills.

It was during these maneuvers that Senator Hugh Butler (Re-
publican) of Nebraska, as Chairman of the Senate Interior Com-
mittee, went to Alaska with the committee to hold more hear-
ings. In previous sessions of Congress Senator Butler opposed
statehood. In Alaska he indicated that he wished to hear testi-
mony of "little people" who could not afford to go to Washington
for hearings.

Senator Butler and his committee held hearings in Ketchikan,
Juneau, Fairbanks and Anchorage. While emphasizing that he
had an open mind on the statehood question, he prefaced most
of the sessions with statements that pointed to the possibility

22 THE REFERENCE SHELF

that statehood would mean higher taxes and other undesirable
burdens.

The "little people" testified in force. Out of 140 who ap-
peared there were only 10 against statehood.

Senator Butler was impressed with the dedication of Alaskans
to statehood. In Anchorage he found that the citizens had or-
ganized a "Little Man's Club" and had signs in store windows,
on automobiles and buildings saying, Tm a Little Man Who
Wants Statehood." Wherever Senator Butler looked he saw the
message. He and his committee reported the bill favorably.

This action brought a new device into the legislative picture.
It was a suggestion that Alaska be made a commonwealth, like
Puerto Rico, instead of a state. Senator Monroney [Democrat
of Oklahoma] was the author of the idea. The suggestion was
denounced immediately by Delegate Bartlett of Alaska and Dele-
gate Farrington of Hawaii. It received virtually no public
support.

The commonwealth proposal was defeated 60 to 24 in the
Senate. The combined statehood bill was passed 57 to 28 and
went to the House, where it died without further action.

Operation Statehood

While the bill was pigeonholed in the House, the "Little
Man's Club" in Anchorage was reorganized into "Operation
Statehood" for the purpose of continuing work in behalf of state-
hood.

The new organization literally flew into action in May 1954,
when opponents of statehood proposed partitioning Alaska. . . .
Alaskans refused to be divided. The Delegate to Congress and
the Chairman of the Alaska Statehood Committee denounced the
plan. "Operation Statehood" chartered a plane and flew Alaskans
to Washington to oppose it. The partition plan died while some
of the officials favoring it were still trying to find a likely place
for a boundary.

The Eighty-fourth Congress had eight statehood bills in the
two houses. They won committee approvals readily but they
made little headway. The only chamber action was in the House,

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 23

where a combined Hawaii-Alaska bill was recommitted to com-
mittee. After this unfavorable action the Senate decided not to
waste any time on the subject.

Constitution and Tennessee Plan

Alaskans were not inclined to allow statehood to languish in
Congress. They turned to the home front to build their case.
In the winter of 1955-56 they held a constitutional convention on
their own motion, without waiting for authorization from Con-
gress.

Besides submitting the constitution for ratification, the con-
vention also put before the voters a proposal that Alaska adopt
the so-called "Tennessee Plan" for seeking statehood. This was
its name for a program under which the territory would act like
a state by electing two senators and a representative and send
them to Washington to request Congress that they be seated.
This approach had been successful when statehood was sought
by Tennessee, Michigan, Oregon, California, Minnesota, Kansas
and Ohio.

The constitution was ratified by a vote better than two to
one. The Tennessee Plan also carried, and three men were elect-
ed as provisional senators and representative.

Eleven statehood bills went before the Eighty-fifth Congress.
They were approved by the committees promptly and were in
line for floor action. The House Rules Committee once more
stopped them. For ten months it failed to act.

House Action, 1958

Representative Clair Engle (Democrat) of California, Chair-
man of the House Interior Committee, then invoked an old rule
under which statehood legislation is privileged. He got a bill to
the floor without action by the Rules Committee.

During debate the opponents found they could not stop en-
actment, but they could amend the bill. They provided for a
referendum vote on three propositions before Alaska could be-
come a state. These propositions required that Alaskans indicate
that they (1) want immediate statehood, (2) accept the bound-
aries of the territory as the boundaries of the state, and (3) accept

24 THE REFERENCE SHELF

conditions as to transfer of public lands to the state and power
of the President to withdraw certain military lands in emergency.

The bill was also amended to have the Federal Government
retain control over the fisheries until the Secretary of the Interior
certifies that the new state is ready and able to assume manage-
ment responsibilities. This reduced the opposition of fish packers.

The House passed the measure May 28, 1958, by vote of 208
to 166.

Victory in the Senate

In the Senate the road to success was found sprinkled with
hurdles, many of them formidable. Party concerns appeared.
Republicans held that Democrats were pressing Alaska statehood
and had no intention of acting on Hawaii. This made some
Republicans reluctant to help enact the Alaska measure.

Additionally, some Republicans expressed fear that there were
"no Republicans" in Alaska. The three in the "Tennessee Plan"
delegation were Democrats, as was the Delegate to Congress.

The situation was complicated further by the fact that the
Senate bill was, in the minds of its sponsors, better than the
House bill. They preferred to act on their own measure. If they
did, however, it was certain that no bill would result, as the two
chambers would never agree in conference. The Rules Com-
mittee would bottle it up again.

Statehood supporters undertook a three-pronged challenge.
It was that of (1) convincing the senators to forgo action on their
own bill and consider the bill that had passed the House, (2)
persuade the senators to accept the House bill without amend-
ment so that no conference with the House would be necessary,
and (3) allay the fears of Republicans that their party was non-
existent in Alaska.

The friends of statehood were persuasive enough to accom-
plish all three phases of that program, largely because Secretary
of the Interior Fred A. Seaton proved a devoted supporter and
leader. The Secretary won strong support from all Administration
quarters, and inspired the Republican side of the Senate to favor
enactment of the bill.

During six days of debate on the floor of the Senate, certain
of the southern senators sought by various means to upset the
legislation. But repeated attempts to amend it were voted down..

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWASS 25

Five Alaska Republicans went to Washington to bolster the
Democratic delegation. They called on every Republican, and in
the final tally Republican senators for statehood outnumbered
the Democrats.

The final vote came on the evening of June 30. The vote was
64 to 20, a landslide for statehood. The bill was signed by the
President on July 7.

Victory in Alaska

Alaskans went to the polls August 26. They approved the
three referendum propositions by five to one, and ran up the
biggest vote in the history of Alaska.

Even during the final days before the referendum, Alaskans
found themselves pitted against fish packers still opposing state-
hood. The Alaska Statehood Committee sponsored another infor-
mational program for the voters, to put down rumors that were
circulated in the hope of stirring up enough votes to defeat at
least one proposition.

Secretary Seaton accepted an invitation of the Alaska State-
hood Committee to come to Alaska for the purpose of explaining
that Federal functions and agencies would continue to operate
after statehood, that Indians would not be confined to reserva-
tions, and that they would not lose their lands and fishing rights.

The final chapter was written by the Alaskans when they gave
the five-to-one decision in favor of statehood. It was only natural
that they should, because they had been working for it for forty-
two years.

WHAT STATEHOOD MEANS TO ALASKA 3

On August 26, 1958, more than 48,800 Alaskan voters re-
corded at the polls their overwhelming endorsement of statehood
for Alaska. The ratio of "yes" to "no" votes over the entire
territory was five to one, but even this figure does not indicate
the strength of the popular support for statehood. An emphasiz-
ing underline may be added to the quoted ratio by noting that
20,000 more persons voted on the statehood question than had

3 From "The Meaning of Statehood to Alaska," by Thomas B. Stewart, attorney,
executive officer of the Alaska Statehood Committee and secretary of the Alaska Consti-
tutional Convention. State Government. 31:215-19. Autumn 58. Reprinted by per-
mission.

2* THE REFERENCE SHELF

ever before voted in Alaska, the largest previous vote cast having
been 28,903 ballots at the general election in 1956, And an indi-
cation that the people of Alaska came to the polls especially to
record their desire for statehood is revealed by the fact that
nearly 3,000 more persons voted on the proposition as to whether
statehood be granted than voted for United States senators, the
contest drawing the next greatest number of votes.

Self -Government the Key

This fact of the tremendous popular majority for statehood, in
a proportion not anticipated by even the most optimistic support-
ers, points up the central and basic meaning of statehood to
Alaska and for Alaskans: the achievement of full self-government,
in its unique American form. This vote itself was a vigorous
exercise of self-determination in government by the people of
Alaska.

Some few spokesmen for statehood in the pre-election cam-
paign dwelt expressly on the fundamental proposition that the
question before the voters was whether to accept the full respon-
sibility of self-government or to continue in territorial, colonial
status without the rights of self-determination held by full-
fledged American citizens, i.e., those residing "In the states
proper" (in the territorial idiom).

The debate on statehood just prior to this election focused
principally on economic problems and on the general tax burden,
and not so significantly on the more idealistic question of ob-
taining democratic rights. But the response of the voters to the
challenge of the statehood question, on the other hand, implied
a widespread and perhaps deeply emotional feeling amongst
Alaskans for the central idea: statehood means the right of self-
government for the people of Alaska.

Beyond this dominant proposition, the meaning of statehood
principally assumes the character of possibilities. Having the
right of self-determination, Alaskans now have the possibility of
realizing many advantages and benefits not heretofore within
their reach, as a practical matter. Whether the possibilities will
become realities is to be determined largely by the wisdom and
care with which the people of Alaska, and their leaders, exercise
the newly gained rights of self-government.

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 27

Earlier Restrictions

There are some significant meanings of statehood of more
certainty, however, and these include the immediate removal
of positive restrictions on the powers of the territorial govern-
ment imposed by the Organic Act of 1912, by the act of Con-
gress which created the territory in its present form, and by other
Federal laws.

These restrictions are too numerous to list in detail, but they
include such things as a prohibition against the territory or
municipal corporations assuming any bonded indebtedness. This
barrier has been modified during the years prior to statehood in
various ways, but it still has operated to prevent adequate capital
improvements and a sound program of public financing. A most
drastic prohibition has been that of preventing the territory from
entering the field of regulation of its fish and wildlife resources
a restriction which has given rise to some of the most bitter,
local feelings with regard to Federal administration in Alaska.
This particular restriction on the governmental power has been
temporarily retained in Public Law 85-508, Eighty-fifth Con-
gress, the act providing for admission of the state of Alaska into
the Union.

Perhaps the most significant restriction has been that pre-
venting the election of the governor by the people of Alaska.
The consequence of having a federally appointed governor, not
responsible to the will of the electorate of the territory, has been
a long history of bitter conflict in past decades between the legis-
lature and the governor. In some instances, the governor has
simply not given regard to the popular will in circumstances in
which an elected governor would need to do so, at the almost
certain price of loss of office should he not respond. This situa-
tion has given rise to a distrust of the chief executive by the
legislature which has produced much bad legislation in the terri-
tory in terms of decentralization in the executive organization
and consequent lack of coordination in executive programs.

Strong Executive Becomes Possible

The removal of the restrictions of Federal law on Alaskan
governmental power suggests the area in which there are perhaps
the greatest possibilities for advantages to Alaska from statehood.

28 THE REFERENCE SHELF

This is the matter of organization of the executive branch of the
Alaskan government.

The general outline of its organization is already provided in
the constitution for the state of Alaska, adopted by its framers
on February 6, 1956, and ratified by the people of Alaska in an
election held on April 24, 1956. The constitution has been ac-
cepted, ratified, and confirmed by Congress as being republican
in form and in conformity with the Constitution of the United
States and the principles of the Declaration of Independence. It
provides for a strong executive, with powers to appoint the major
department heads who will serve at his pleasure. It provides for
a limited number of major departments of the executive branch,
and otherwise expresses a policy of simplicity and clear lines of
authority and responsibility. . . .

Thus a most important meaning of statehood to Alaska is
the possibility of creating a workable and responsible executive
branch. The constitution already adopted not only will permit
this but encourages it. . .

Legislative Apportionment

Statehood means for Alaska an opportunity to make the
legislative branch continuously representative of the population
and its distribution to a degree seldom achieved by any state.
The territorial legislature in recent years has been particularly
unrepresentative, in the sense that most of its members came pri-
marily from a few of the largest communities, although numer-
ous smaller communities had sufficient population to warrant
representation in the legislature on a proportionate basis. While
it recently became theoretically possible for the legislature to
redistrict for purposes of legislative elections, this was not done.

A sure consequence of statehood is an immediate redistricting
along logical lines, providing for maximum representation of
people and a constitutional scheme for reapportionment carefully
designed to insure its operation despite legislative inertia on re-
apportionment.

It is noteworthy that the constitutional convention which de-
termined upon the 'scheme of apportionment adopted by the peo-
ple was itself composed of delegates whose election was based
upon a special districting for the purposes of the election to the

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 29

convention. This scheme of districting for the convention, which
unquestionably produced a group of delegates far more widely
representative than had ever assembled in the territorial legisla-
ture, was an instance of self-government. It indicates the quality
of governmental action that arises from the promise of statehood.

A Better Court System

Statehood means that for the first time there will be a court
system designed and operated by the people of Alaska rather
than for them by absent powers. Perhaps one of the most sig-
nificant facets of this change is that the judges will be selected
by Alaskans and, as provided by the state constitution, under
the pattern of the American Bar Association plan for the selection
of judges.

There is another and equally significant facet of Alaska's
finally having its own judicial system. Heretofore, appeal from
decisions of the district courts in Alaska has been through the
Federal system to the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit at
San Francisco, and thence to the United States Supreme Court.
This process of appeal has been prohibitively expensive for liti-
gants. Consequently it has meant many decisions by the district
courts without appellate review. There has also been little
opportunity to review the validity of Alaskan laws and to inter-
pret their meaning, which was needed to put flesh on the statu-
tory skeletons. Statehood offers an opportunity to give the ju-
dicial system its proper place in the scheme of government.

Power at the Federal Level

A vitally important part of the meaning of statehood to
Alaska is the opportunity to exercise political power at the Fed-
eral level. The history of Alaska as a territory is filled with frus-
trations of the elected delegates to Congress who have sat in the
House of Representatives without the right to vote. This has
meant almost no representation at all on critical issues where
the practical processes of legislation required political power to
accomplish governmental action for the constituency.

The lack of power in the voteless delegate to Congress evi-
denced itself in many ways. Often the Alaskan delegate's oppor-

30 THE REFERENCE SHELF

tunity to be heard before a committee, for example, was lost in
the press of time when voting members of Congress were given
priority in hearing. The delegate from Alaska, of course, sat
only in the lower house, and his opportunity to obtain action by
the Senate was severely restricted since he had no privilege in
that body.

Under statehood Alaska will have two senators and a repre-
sentative in Congress. In an area as undeveloped as Alaska,
and with so much of its surface in the category of Federal land,
there are unlimited opportunities for enhancing development by
Federal action. It is only with statehood that Alaska is in a
position properly and adequately to urge necessary Federal action.
The obtaining of a voice in Congress is a key feature of statehood
that can affect Alaska's growth and development.

Transport and Natural Resources

Two of the most critical problems facing Alaska today are
the development of an adequate transportation and communica-
tion system and the control and development of natural resources.
Statehood holds the opportunity to reach sound answers in these
fields.

Alaska today is economically a high-cost region, toward which
venture capital for development therefore is not readily attracted.
At the root of the problem of high costs is Alaska's remoteness
from the manufacturing centers of the United States and the high
cost of transporting goods from them. Under territorial status
Alaska has suffered certain discriminations which have tended to
restrict competition in transportation and otherwise to produce
extremely high freight rates.

Statehood means that some of these restrictions will auto-
matically be removed, and the possibility will exist for new com-
petition, especially in ocean freight.

Under statehood Alaska will become eligible for Federal as-
sistance in road building in a manner that heretofore has been
denied it. By careful planning of the development of road and
air facilities the new state has an opportunity to make available
for economic use and development resources presently not used
because of the difficulties of transportation.

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAS8 31

Perhaps the greatest opportunity offered by statehood Is that
of planning for and, with accepted conservation standards, en-
couraging the use of Alaska's natural resources. At present the
largest single industry is the taking and canning of fish, especially
the various species of the Pacific salmon. A potentially large
industry, just now awakening, is in the timber products field, in-
cluding lumber and pulp. Mining remains one of the most im-
portant industries, although its future is uncertain in the face of
existing depressed prices on the national and international levels.
The prospect of extensive oil reserves is promising. There are
known sites in Alaska for development of tremendous quantities
of inexpensive hydroelectric power, and this offers great challenge
for possible industrial development the potential being avail-
able in many cases in the near vicinity of deep-water and ice-
free ports that may accommodate ocean shipping. Not the least
of the new state's economic advantages is its magnificent scenic
beauty; the possibilities for development of tourism present an
immediate opportunity. Finally, Alaska's vast land area is one
of its major resources. Making land available for use and occu-
pation to settlers offers a prime opportunity for governmental
action looking toward the healthy, economic growth of the
state. . . .

Alaska and the World

The strategic position of Alaska, located as it is athwart the
growing polar transportation routes by air and sea, places it in
a particularly sensitive international status. The significance of
statehood reaches out, militarily and otherwise, into international
affairs, with possibly wide consequences for the international
position of the United States.

Alaska's statehood has every possibility of contributing to the
best defensive system for the United States. With statehood
there will now be added, for the Federal determinations on such
matters as military appropriations, the voices of Alaska's two
senators and its congressman. It is important to America to have
a strong Alaska as its northernmost bastion. And Alaska is much
more likely to be strong when occupied by people with roots in
the land, supported by good transportation facilities, with a well-
developed industry and agriculture, and a sense of being full
participants in the destiny of all the United States.

32 THE REFERENCE SHELF

Not the least of the consequences of statehood for the inter-
national position of the United States is the tangible evidence it
provides that America practices the democracy it preaches. The
granting of statehood is an obvious demonstration of America's
belief in self-determination, self-government, and the superiority
of democratic processes. The situation of the entire free^ world
argues for an extension of the principle of union; in joining
Alaska to the forty-eight states, America asserts a leadership in
the development and spread of that principle. As a demonstra-
tion of faith in democracy the significance of Alaska's admission
cannot be missed by the nations of the world. That it has had
this value is evidenced by the weak attempt of the Russian gov-
ernment to minimize its importance, labeling it an effort by the
United States to extend a military threat toward Russia. It is
very clear that no such motives lay behind the decision of Con-
gress to extend statehood. On the contrary, the passage of the
bill was the culmination of long, hard efforts by Alaska and its
many friends in Congress, the national Government and private
life to achieve full rights of self-government for the people of
Alaska.

The meaning of statehood for Alaska will become fully known
only when its people have exercised these new rights of self-
determination.

BACKGROUND ON THE FORTY-NINTH STATE *

Alaska is about one fifth the size of the continental United
States. The distance from Ketchikan in southeastern Alaska to
the westernmost Aleutian Island is greater than from New York
to San Francisco. The distance from Ketchikan to Point Barrow
is about the same as from Seattle to the Mexican border. Yet this
large area 586,000 square miles is thinly settled although its
young population is growing rapidly.

For July 1957 the Bureau of the Census estimated the civilian
population of Alaska at 165,000, an increase of 56,000 (52.0 per
cent) over the 1950 figure of 108,000. Nevada's gain in civilian
population for the 1950-1957 period was 63.8 per cent. In the
period between the 1940 and 1950 censuses, Alaska's gain of 77.4

4 From "The 49th State/* Social Legislation Information Service Bulletin. 82:540-7.
N. 25, "58. Reprinted by permission.

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 33

per cent in total population was larger than any state's. Cal-
ifornia was nearest with 53.3 per cent for this period.

While Alaska's population increased 77 per cent between 1940
and 1950, the population of the continental United States in-
creased 14 per cent. The population of Alaska is still growing
much faster than any state except Nevada. About two thirds of
this growth is accounted for by natural increase excess of births
over deaths and about one third to net immigration. About
one quarter of the population is nonwhite.

Much of the population increase has taken place around An-
chorage, the largest city in the state, whose total population is
now 32,000. Fairbanks, the second city in size, has approximately
16,000 people. Juneau, the state capital, and Ketchikan in the
southeast both have less than 10,000 inhabitants. About three
people live in the country to every city dweller in Alaska. The
"stateside" ratio is roughly two urban dwellers to one rural resi-
dent. Alaska has a population density of about 1 person per
4 square miles, as compared with 57 persons per square mile in
the continental United States. Nevada, with two persons per
square mile, has heretofore held the record for population
sparseness.

The birth rate in Alaska (number of births per 1,000 popula-
tion per year) stands at 35, ten points higher than the United
States average and a rate close to those of several Latin American
countries. The high Alaskan birth rate reflects the youthfulness
of the population and the high proportion of married women.
The median age of the Alaskan population is only 26, five years
below that of the United States. In 1950, 42 per cent of Alaska's
population was in the prime reproductive ages of 20 to 40, as
compared with only 32 per cent in the United States as a whole.

The forty-ninth state of the Union has by far the largest
proportion of males of any state and the highest proportion of
married women. There are 16 males to every 10 females in
Alaska. Nearly three fourths of all women there are married.
In the continental United States, women slightly exceed men in
numbers, and only two thirds of the women are married.

The extremely youthful age structure of the population also
accounts for Alaska's phenomenally low death rate of 5.8. This
is almost four points below the 9.6 death rate of the continental

34 THE REFERENCE SHELF

United States. But if birth and death rates were adjusted for
the age differences, the marked differences in birth and death
rates between Alaska and the continental United States would be
greatly reduced. . . .

Tuberculosis is probably the most serious health problem
among the 34,000 Eskimos, Indians and Aleuts who are known as
"Alaska natives." In 1957 the known case rate was 1649.7 per
100,000 in the native population. The number of cases among
the Indian population in the United States in the same year was
426.9 and 51.4 cases among the general population. Although
mortality from tuberculosis remains high among Alaska natives,
it has dropped from a rate of 630 per 100,000 population in 1951
to 89.2 in 1956.

Programs: Special Federal Aid

The Federal Government now owns 99.5 per cent of the land
in Alaska. The land north of the Yukon River and west of its
porcupine tributary plus much of the Alaska Peninsula in the
southwest will remain subject to exclusive Federal jurisdiction
whenever the President deems this necessary for national defense.
This "withdrawal area" is about half of Alaska, containing 15,000
Indians, Aleuts and Eskimos and 5,000 employees of the Defense
Department.

Under the Alaska Statehood Act, over the next twenty-five
years, the new state may select up to 103,350,000 acres of land, of
which 400,000 acres may be within the withdrawal area. Alaska
may sell or lease its land "dowry," except that land within the
withdrawal area may be used only for recreational purposes and
community expansion and may not be sold. Although the Fed-
eral Government will retain some 70 per cent of the land in
Alaska, the new state is receiving more land than has been grant-
ed any other state joining the Union. . . .

The Government is turning over to the new state the Federal
building in Juneau, as well as the Governor's Mansion. Of
great benefit also will be continuance, for at least several years,
of special Federal aid for welfare, health and education in
Alaska:

Until 1900 all Alaskan public schools were operated by the
Federal Government. Since then the territorial public school

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 35

system, which accounts for about half the territorial budget, has
grown to total 125 schools, of four types:

28 schools in organized districts supported by local funds and
directed by local school boards. Elementary enrollment,
20,000 (about 20 per cent native); secondary enrollment,
4,700 (about 18 per cent native).

68 schools outside incorporated districts are supported and
operated by Alaska's Department of Education. Elementary
enrollment, 3,100 (about 48 per cent native); secondary en-
rollment, 250 (about 35 per cent native) .
21 former Federal schools now operated by Alaska's Depart-
ment of Education, although the Federal Government still
owns and finances them. Enrollment is about 650, entirely
elementary and virtually all native.

8 schools on military bases, operated by Alaska's Department
of Education but supported by Federal funds.
There are also some 20 or 25 private and denominational
schools in Alaska, most of which are elementary. Their enroll-
ment totals 1,600 (about half native) .

The Department of the Interior operates 86 schools in Alaska.
Two on the Pribilof Islands of St. George and St. Paul are the
responsibility of the Fish and Wildlife Service of the Depart-
ment, while the others are managed by its Bureau of Indian Af-
fairs. Most have only one or two teachers; three fourths have
enrollments between 15 and 55. In southeast Alaska the Bureau
maintains two boarding schools: Wrangell Institute, an elemen-
tary school with an enrollment of 250; and Mount Edgecumbe, a
secondary school with an enrollment of 740. Only native chil-
dren may attend. . . .

The Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Interior Department pro-
vides general assistance to Alaskan natives who are not eligible
for categorical public assistance under the Social Security Act.
The BIA also provides child welfare services to native children
who are not eligible for Territorial services and social casework
services for families with serious problems. . . . [In 1958] BIA
allocated $960,000 for its Alaskan welfare program.

The Federal Government provides health and medical serv-
ices for Alaska natives on essentially the same basis that these
services are rendered to Indians who live on reservations within

36 THE REFERENCE SHELF

the continental United States. Until July 1955, health services
for Alaska natives were provided by the Bureau of Indian Affairs
of the Department of the Interior, but since then the Indian
health program has been the responsibility of the Public Health
Service of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
In general, all services to the natives are designed to reach natives
who live in unincorporated villages and rural areas. Those liv-
ing in larger towns depend for services upon the same territorial
agencies that serve the entire population.

The eight PHS hospitals in Alaska have a combined total of
more than 1,000 beds, of which about 650 are for tuberculosis
patients. However, there are not enough beds to meet the needs
of the unusually high number of tuberculosis patients and some
general patients in remote communities. To serve these people,
the Public Health Service contracts with community hospitals
and sanatoria for about 25 general beds and for more than 100
beds for tuberculosis patients, as well as for about 300 beds in
three sanatoria in the state of Washington. Native tuberculosis
patients are transported by air to the hospitals in Washington.

For a number of years the Bureau of Indian Affairs had con-
tracted with the Alaska Department of Health for public health
nursing services to the native population. This contractual ar-
rangement has been continued and expanded since the transfer
of the program to the PHS. The current contract provides for
public health nursing services, medical care, tuberculosis control
and sanitation and health education services to the Alaska native
population. Under this contract, native sanitarian aides are being
trained and employed in the Alaska native health programs.

The PHS program also includes itinerant nursing services to
natives in 113 remote villages. The Service operates a nationally
accredited practical nurse training school at Mount Edgecumbe,
in which about forty Alaska native girls are in training annually.
Graduates of this school are employed in the hospitals and other
Alaskan health facilities of the PHS.

Three Federal grant programs in the health field apply only
to Alaska. The former territory has been appropriated $638,000
annually to supplement territorial, local and other funds re-
ceived by the Alaskan Department of Health. ... [In 1957 and
again in 1958], Congress also made a special $1 million grant
to help the territory meet the cost of treatment and care of the

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 37

mentally ill. In July 1956, Congress provided for the progressive
transfer over a decade ending June 30, 1967 of responsibility
for the mentally ill in Alaska from the Federal Government to
the territory. Appropriation of $6.5 million was then authorized
for construction of suitable facilities in Alaska, where none now
exist, patients being hospitalized in Oregon. . . .

The Public Health Service program currently [1958] in-
cludes $527,000 for direct operations in Alaska. The territory
has been aided through loan of personnel, procurement of sup-
plies and provision of other services necessary for control of
venereal diseases, tuberculosis and sanitation and other general
health problems. At Anchorage, the PHS also operates its Arctic
Health Research Center, which studies environmental sanitation,
epidemiology, entomology, animal-borne diseases transmissible
to man, biochemistry, nutrition and physiology.

Grants: Special Treatment for Alaska

In ... [many] programs of Federal aid to the states, no dis-
tinction is made between the former Territory of Alaska and the
states. . . .

In other Federal grant programs, however, Alaska is presently
accorded treatment differing from that received by the forty eight
states. For the most part, the current laws give Alaska less fav-
orable treatment. The Library Services Act sets the Federal share
of Alaska's rural libraries at two thirds of the annual costs, al-
though in the states the Federal share varies from two thirds to
one third, depending upon state per capita income.

On the other hand, the section of the Smith-Hughes Voca-
tional Education Act providing grants for teacher training does
not include Alaska. Under the National Defense Education Act
of 1958, financial assistance to Alaska for instruction in science,
mathematics and modern foreign languages will be determined
by the Commissioner of Education, as is also true of the Act's
provisions for guidance, counseling and testing. Special pro-
visions of other laws affecting Alaska are:

The 1958 amendments to the Social Security Act . . . specified
for Alaska the Federal share of four matching grant programs in
which the former territory participates. Starting with the 1960
fiscal year which begins July 1, 1959 the Federal share of state

3 8 THE REFERENCE SHELF

child welfare programs will depend on state per capita income,
varying from one third to two thirds of the total. The Federal
share in Alaska, though, was fixed at half the cost of the program.

In the public assistance programs of Old-Age Assistance, Aid
to Dependent Children and Aid to the Blind, the Federal grants
are in two parts. The Federal share is $15 of the first $18 paid
monthly to adult recipients and $14 of the first $17 received
monthly by dependent children. With respect to this portion of
the OAA, ADC and AB grants, Alaska is treated as other states.

The Federal share of additional payments made under these
programs depends upon state per capita income and varies from
50 to 65 per cent. The Federal share of the cost of Alaska's OAA,
AB and ADC programs is fixed at 50 per cent, without regard to
per capita income in the forty-ninth state.

Alaska is treated like the states under most public health pro-
grams. Exceptions are the Federal grants for water pollution con-
trol and construction of (Hill-Burton) medical facilities. In these
two programs, the Federal share of project costs depends upon
state per capita income and may vary from one third to two
thirds of the total. In Alaska the Federal contribution does not
depend on per capita income and is fixed at half the cost of
projects.

Alaska is also treated differently in one portion of the Federal-
state vocational rehabilitation program the grant-in-aid for
support of services. Under the law, available funds are allotted
among the states on the basis of a formula involving per capita
income, with allotments ranging from one third to three fourths.
The allotment percentage for Alaska is fixed by law at three
fourths. The matching provisions of this law call for the Federal
contribution to vary from 50 to 70 per cent, depending upon state
per capita income. In Alaska the Federal share is fixed by law
at 60 per cent.

The only distinction made between Alaska and the states
under the Housing and Home Finance Agency's authority to pro-
vide defense housing and community services and facilities is
with respect to maximum cost per family dwelling unit. At the
discretion of the HHFA, the cost in Alaska may be 50 per cent
higher than the maximum allowed in the forty eight states.
Similarly, in the low rent public housing program, Alaska is
permitted $500 additional over the maximum cost of $2,000 per

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 39

room in the continental United States. Congress authorized es-
tablishment of the Alaska Housing Authority, which may borrow
up to $20 million from HHFA. Up to $1 million of this sum
may be used to make character loans to individuals and co-
operatives. . . .

Under a law passed in 1949, donations of surplus Federal
property may be made to the states only for purposes of educa-
tion, public health, civil defense or for research in these fields,
and all such donations are subject to certain restrictions and con-
trols by the donor agencies. In 1954 this law was amended, how-
ever, to authorize donation of surplus movable Federal property
to the territorial government of Alaska without regard to other
requirements of the law, providing only that the territorial gov-
ernor indicates, before the end of 1959, that the property is
needed.

Prospects: Continued Federal Generosity?

. . . [The] Department of the Interior, with the concurrence of
the Attorney General, has circulated a legal opinion to encourage
uniform interpretation of the Alaska Statehood Act by the vari-
ous Federal departments and agencies.

The legal memorandum recalls that Section 8(d) of the Act,
provides that "All of the laws of the United States shall have
the same force and effect within said state (Alaska) as elsewhere
within the United States." The memorandum then categorizes
"the laws of the United States" as follows:

1. Those generally applicable but not applying to Alaska,

2. Those equally applicable to the United States and Alaska
and

3. Those which accord territories or possessions, including
Alaska, more or less favorable treatment than the several
states.

In the opinion of the Interior Department's attorneys, laws
of the first two types continue or will be extended to apply to
the new state of Alaska. With respect to the third category of
laws, they believe it would be "clearly inconsistent with state-
hood to apply to Alaska provisions expressly applicable only to
territories and possessions." This reasoning would seem to dic-
tate the end of the special provisions regarding Alaska that have
been described above.

4 THE REFERENCE SHELF

However, the Interior Department's legal memorandum re-
gards as an exception to the third category laws "which prescribe
distinctive treatment for Alaska attributable to some factor other
than the territorial status of Alaska. ... The distinction may
have been made, for example, because of area, population, cli-
mate, terrain, or any of a number of other factors. We think it
entirely compatible with statehood that those distinctions be pre-
served until such time as the Congress manifests an intention to
the contrary.

HAWAII'S EXOTIC PAST 5

[One of the mysteries of the Pacific is] where ... the native
Hawaiian . . . [came] from, and how ... [he got] to Hawaii.
This much is obvious: the ancient Polynesian was a daring and
venturesome navigator. He had to be, when you consider the
distances he traveled over uncharted seas, in small craft, to get
to Hawaii.

Many theories have been advanced through the years to ac-
count for the arrival of these intrepid voyagers to the Islands.
Most authorities agree that they first came to Hawaii about one
thousand years ago. Their origin is obscure but it is generally be-
lieved that they were Polynesians who came up from Tahiti,
two thousand miles away.

The Polynesians are said to be the descendants of a tribe of
Caucasian people who left their homeland in India. They
roamed through Malaya to the island groups of the Pacific.
Along the route they intermarried with Malayans and people of
the Orient. From the people of the southwestern Pacific islands
they acquired their darker complexion, so that by the time they
reached Tahiti, now considered the ancient homeland of the
Polynesian, they were a light brown people.

During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, new groups of
Tahitian Polynesians rediscovered Hawaii. They came in large
double canoes, laden with families, food, plants, and animals,
and they settled down. The era of long voyages ended. Hawaii
remained isolated from the world for ... several centuries.

8 From A Pocket Guide to Hawaii, pamphlet prepared by the Office of Armed Forces
Information and Education. (DOD Pam 2-1) Department of Defense. Washington 25,
D.C. "55. p 15-27.

I

42 THE REFERENCE SHELF

Arrival of Captain Cook

Captain James Cook, the great English sea captain and ex-
plorer, was on his third voyage of exploration in the Pacific when
he first sighted the Hawaiian Islands in 1778. His two armed
vessels, the Resolution and the Discovery, anchored in Waimea
Bay, Kauai, on 20 January and Cook, accompanied by twelve
marines in three armed boats, went ashore. The natives im-
mediately prostrated themselves before the explorer, believing
him to be an incarnation of their god, Lono, returning in
fulfillment of an old prophecy.

Cook left the Islands, promising to return. He did so a year
later. On 17 January 1779, he anchored his vessels in Kealakekua
Bay, Island of Hawaii. ...

Here again the Englishman was treated as a god and given
presents. All went well for ten days and then pilikia (trouble)
set in. It started with the realization that Cook and his com-
panions were not gods but mortals, as were the natives them-
selves. Quarrels in trade occurred, and thefts. The natives
became angry when a fence around a temple was cut up for fuel
by the visitors. Then a large boat belonging to the Discovery was
stolen by natives who broke it up to obtain iron. Cook deter-
mined to take the Island king aboard the Discovery and hold
him until the stolen craft was restored. A fight resulted, and
Captain Cook and seventeen natives were killed.

Kamehameha the Great

Cook, as he explored each of the inhabited islands, found
them ruled as independent kingdoms by hereditary chiefs called
alii nui. The emergence of a Big Island chieftain, Kamehameha,
changed all that. Kamehameha first consolidated the Island of
Hawaii by a series of great battles. In one of them, he is said to
have had the aid of Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of the volcano.
A battle was in the making between Kamehameha and Keoua.
En route from Hilo to the Kau district, the forces of Keoua
moved along the active crater of Kilauea. The first group got
through safely. As the second group passed, there was an
explosive eruption and every warrior in it was killed.

In 1795 Kamehameha decided the time had come for conquest
of all the Hawaiian Islands. He mustered a large and well-

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 43

equipped army and sailed for Maui. Meeting little resistance
there, he destroyed the village of Lahaina and laid waste to the
western portion of the island.

His forces then took possession of the island of Molokai and
sailed on to Oahu. After a few days of preparation his army
marched up Nuuanu valley where Kalanikupule, the king of
Oahu, stood with his forces. The Oahu warriors fought bravely
but were driven up the valley and hundreds of them perished
when they were pushed back over the pali (cliff) at the head of
the valley. It is an event celebrated in ancient and modern
Hawaii songs. The Nuuanu pali today is one of the world's
greatest scenic masterpieces. . . .

Kamehameha I will always remain a hero to his Hawaiian
people. It was he who consolidated the Islands under a rule
strong enough to withstand a century of foreign jockeying for
favored position in these strategic Islands. He and his descend-
ants were to rule the Islands for one hundred years until just
before Hawaii became a territory of the United States.

Vancouver Arrives

About this time foreign vessels began to visit the Islands,
principally on trading or exploration missions. In 1791 one of
them anchored off Kauai to collect sandalwood, establishing a
long and profitable sandalwood trade with China. An important
foreign visitor was Captain George Vancouver, British naval
explorer, who made three visits beginning in 1792. He brought
to Hawaii the first bulls and cows ever seen there, and presents
of orange trees, grapevines, and other useful plants. Vaucouver
also gave Kamehameha much valuable advice on the manage-
ment of his monarchy, the training of his troops, and how to
deal with foreigners.

In 1820 an event of considerable importance occurred. The
first missionaries arrived after a long voyage around the Horn
from New England. They found a fertile field for Christianity.
The American missionaries gained success when they aligned
themselves with the chiefs to combat the distillation of hard
liquor, a breakdown in morals, and the spread of infectious
diseases.

44 THE REFERENCE SHELF

Russia Tries to Move In

The Islands prospered tinder the Kamehameha kings. Foreign
trade developed steadily, as did internal commerce, agriculture,
and industry. Sugar and coffee were becoming established crops.

With Japan closed to foreigners, Hawaii became the center
for the whaling industry in the Pacific. Foreign vessels, men-of-
war and cargo ships put into Honolulu harbor in increasing
numbers.

In 1814 the Bering, a Russian trading vessel, was wrecked on
the coast of KauaL Much of the cargo was salvaged by natives.
In 1815 the Russians sent an agent to Hawaii presumably to
recover the lost cargo but actually to establish a Russian post.

A year later the agent was reinforced by the arrival of two
more Russian ships. He landed his men in Honolulu and began
building a fort there. Kamehameha ordered them sent away.
The Russians went instead to the island of Kauai where, aided
by natives, they began building a new fortress. When news of
this reached the king on Oahu, he ordered the Kauai governor
to expel the Russians at once. This was done after some fighting,
and the foreigners were deported to California. Thus ended the
dream of Russian conquest in the Hawaiian Islands and the first
known attempt at foreign interference with the affairs of the
Pacific Kingdom.

The United States and Hawaii

A quarter of a century passed, and in 1842 the United States
formally recognized the Kingdom of Hawaii.

Queen Liliuokalani was a handsome and a brilliant woman.
She reigned for not quite two years, beginning in January 1891,
and was in trouble right from the start. Her reign, although
brief, is important. Her dethronement led in succession to the
establishment of a provisional government, a Hawaiian republic,
and, eventually, to annexation by the United States.

Early in her regime the queen clashed with her ministers
when she attempted to abolish, by means of a new constitution,
some of the restrictions placed upon the monarch. When the
ministers refused to sign the document, the queen withdrew it.

In the meantime a Committee of Safety had been appointed
by leading citizens who had gathered to discuss the situation.

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 45

Members of this Committee took steps almost at once to form a
provisional government and to reorganize a voluntary military
company previously disbanded.

A mass meeting on 16 January 1893 ratified the action of
Committee members. That evening the U.S.S. Boston landed a
force of armed men for the protection of American interests.

The provisional government was organized on 17 January.
That afternoon it took possession of the government building
and issued a proclamation declaring the monarchial government
to be abolished.

On 19 January five commissioners were named to proceed to
Washington with full authority to negotiate a treaty of annexa-
tion to the United States. Such a treaty was drafted and sent to
the United States Senate for approval only to be withdrawn by
President Cleveland, who wanted time to investigate the Hawai-
ian situation.

When their hopes of early annexation to the United States
faded, the Hawaiians took another step. A constitutional con-
vention was summoned to draft a constitution for the Republic
of Hawaii. The work was completed on 4 July 1894, and the
next day the Republic of Hawaii was proclaimed with Sanford
B. Dole as president.

Negotiations for the annexation of the new Republic to the
United States were resumed soon after the election of President
William McKinley. On 6 July 1898, the Senate and the House
of Representatives adopted a joint resolution to this effect. It was
signed by President McKinley the next day.

United States Flag Flies over Hawaii

The news of the signing of the treaty reached Honolulu on
13 July amid great rejoicing. The transfer of sovereignty was
formally completed on 12 August when the flag of the United
States was raised over the executive building.

In April 1900 Congress passed the Hawaii Organic Act,
establishing the territorial form of government and providing
that the Constitution and laws of the United States have the
same force in Hawaii as in the continental states. Sanford Dole,
president of the Republic, was appointed the first governor of the
Territory of Hawaii, taking office on 19 June 1900. Thus Hawaii

46 THE REFERENCE SHELF

came into the Union proudly and voluntarily, preferring the
American democratic way of life to the many other forms of
government she experienced and was offered.

HAWAII'S STRUGGLE FOR STATEHOOD 6

Marine helicopters buzzed overhead, church bells rang, and
little children raced barefoot along country roads, shouting*
"Statehood! Statehood it's come!" Approved by Congress in
1959, statehood arrived 106 years after pro-American King
Kamehameha III first began discussions with the United States
Government about the annexation of Hawaii to the Union as a
new state. After the King died, negotiations lapsed, although the
idea of statehood was never entirely abandoned. In his inaugural
address as the first governor of the Territory of Hawaii, Sanford
B. Dole prophesied eventual statehood, and in 1903, the territorial
legislature petitioned Congress for an enabling act which would
lead to statehood. The first bill calling for statehood was sub-
mitted in Congress sixteen years later by Jonah Kuhio. Dozens
of congressional investigations, reports, and recommendations
were produced in the years that followed, but Hawaiian state-
hood, a symbol of the right and ability of the peoples of the
Islands to govern themselves, was always blocked.

Hawaii remained under the constitutional control of Con-
gress, which could, at any time, abolish the territorial legislature
and local government and place the Islands under a resident
commissioner, as was done in the Philippines, or under a Navy
commission, as had been done in Guam and Samoa. Hawaii
had been threatened with the loss of self-government before. The
President and Congress flirted with the idea of commission gov-
ernment ... in the early 1930 s s. During World War II, Hawaii
became the first sizable territory in American history to be
governed by the military. Throughout its history, the citizens of
Hawaii had been unable to vote for President or for their own
governor. With only one nonvoting delegate to represent them
in Congress, the territory did not get its share of Federal money
for roads, conservation, improvement of rivers and harbors, or

9 From Hawaii Pono: A Social History, by Lawrence H. Fuchs, professor of politics
and dean of faculty at Brandeis University. Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc. New York.
"61. p 406-17. 1961, by Lawrence H. Fuchs. Reprinted by permission of Harcourt,
Brace & World, Inc.

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 47

land-grant colleges and vocational education. Hawaii, Congress
said in repeated sessions following 1935, was not ready for
statehood.

Delegates Jonah Kuhio and Victor Houston, after serving in
Congress, believed that Hawaii could not achieve optimum
economic and social benefits from participation in the American
Union unless the territory was transformed into a state. Houston
had warned the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association as early as
May 1929 that the only sure way to prevent discrimination
against the Islands 5 sugar industry was to obtain statehood.
Unless Hawaii carried more weight in Congress, the two major
props of the industry the high protective American tariff and
the steady supply of cheap labor from the Philippines might be
destroyed. Congress could lump Hawaii with the Philippines as
an offshore area and place the Islands outside the American
tariff, or, responding to Hawaii's insistence on equal treatment
short of statehood, might exclude Filipino labor from the Islands
as they had from the mainland.

Opposition to Statehood

But not all of the citizens of Hawaii wanted statehood. Until
1935, the overwhelming majority of the kamaaina [born in
Hawaii or long resident there] oligarchy of the Islands were
steadfastly opposed. The trustees of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters'
Association answered Houston by arguing that immediate state-
hood would be "premature and unwise," and were delighted
when congressional sponsors of Filipino exclusion bills included
an exemption for Hawaii. The plantations, over 60 per cent of
whose laborers were Filipinos, could continue to draw their field
workers from the giant archipelago in the western Pacific, and
the tariff walls seemed as sturdy as ever. When Houston com-
plained to Henry A. Baldwin [a sugar plantation owner and
political leader] that as delegate he had to beg for benefits for
Hawaii and that there was constant discrimination against the
territory, Baldwin replied that he understood Houston's feeling
like a "book agent going around asking for kokua [help]." But
territorial status was preferable to statehood, he advised, since
the voters of the Island were not mature enough to elect a
safe-and-sane governor. "The bolsheviks and booze fighters seem

48 THE REFERENCE SHELF

to get the big vote, at least on Oahu, and Oahu would^ come
pretty near controlling T. H. elections," predicted the missionary
descendant There was even a risk, suggested Baldwin, that
Hawaii would elect a Japanese governor and a strongly Japanese
state legislature. Another missionary descendant, Clarence H.
Cooke, opposed statehood in a letter to a high-school debating
team by asserting that "through appointment of officers by the
President of the United States, such as the governor, secretary of
the territory and judges, we have always had a better class of
men in these positions than states enjoyed through their elective
systems." Until 1934, the other owners and managers of Hawaii's
sugar agencies and their subsidiaries agreed with Baldwin and
Cooke. [For a discussion of the "oligarchy" of Hawaii, see
"Hawaii's Economy: Prospects and Problems," in Section IV,
below.]

But following the Jones-Costigan Act of 1934, a fundamental
reversal occurred in the attitude of many of Hawaii's leading
kamaaina citizens toward the issue of statehood. The Act classi-
fied Hawaii, not as an integral part of the United States, but as
a nondomestic producer of sugar, along with the Philippines and
Puerto Rico. The practical effect was to increase the amount of
sugar that might be marketed by Colorado, Michigan, and other
states by as much as 18 per cent, while the Hawaiian quota was
cut by 10 per cent. Despite protests from the Hawaiian Sugar
Planters' Association, Federal courts supported the right of Con-
gress to discriminate against any territory in setting sugar quotas.
Association lobbyists failed to produce a change in congressional
will, and suddenly the men who owned and controlled the great
agencies saw the wisdom of Houston's argument for statehood.

Sugar Joins Fight

The sugar industry backed Delegate Samuel Wilder King
when he introduced a statehood bill to the House of Representa-
tives in May 1935, and supported the Hawaii Equal Rights
Commission, created by the territorial legislature in the same
year. The Commission was charged with working to assure
Hawaiian equality with the states in Federal legislation and to
Study the advisability of submitting the issue of statehood to a
plebiscite. The first act of the Commission was to authorize
Governor J. B. Poindexter, its ex officio chairman, to appear

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 49

before the congressional delegation then in the territory to study
the question of statehood.

This was the first of twenty congressional hearings on state-
hood held between 1935 and 1958, hearings that saw more than
1,000 witnesses and that resulted in the passage of Hawaiian
statehood bills by the House of Representatives in 1947, 1950,
and 1953, as well as passage of a Senate bill to admit both
Hawaii and Alaska in 1951. By 1940, the prostatehood forces in
the territory had persuaded the territorial legislature to authorize
a plebiscite on the question. The sugar interests, recognizing that
Hawaii's position in the domestic market was in constant
jeopardy, strongly supported statehood. Joseph Farrington's Hon-
olulu Star Bulletin, the Nippu Jiji, and the Hawaii Hochi
endorsed the plebiscite in editorials and news columns. The
Honolulu Advertiser opposed immediate statehood, mainly on
the ground that Americans of Japanese ancestry who held dual
citizenship were not yet trustworthy as Americans.

The magazine Fortune helped prostatehood forces when it
published an Elmo Roper poll in January 1940 which showed
that only 55 per cent of the mainlanders questioned believed the
United States should go to the rescue of Hawaii if the Islands
were attacked, while 74 per cent favored the defense of Canada.
The Advertiser considered the poll irrelevant, insisting that
Hawaii should not become a state until its citizens were Amer-
icanized. It pointed to the 37,000 alien-born Japanese in Hawaii
who could not become citizens, the 174 Japanese-language schools
attended by more than 40,000 young nisei, and the potential
dangers of Japanese-language broadcasts. Disturbed by the Ad-
vertiser's hard-hitting attacks, the Star Bulletin published an
article by University of Hawaii sociologist Romanzo Adams
entitled "Getting the Facts Straight About Statehood A Myth
About Japanese Dominance." Although no group was more
interested in the outcome of the plebiscite than the Japanese,
most of their leaders refrained from taking a stand to avoid lend-
ing credence to the Advertiser's allegations. In the plebiscite, two
of every three voters affirmed their support of statehood, with the
largest pluralities coming from the outer islands. On Oahu,
especially in the haole [white] districts, statehood was more
controversial, since it was in such areas that fear of the "Japanese
menace" had had the greatest influence.

50 THE REFERENCE SHELF

Post-War Efforts

After the war, statehood efforts were vigorously renewed. In
1944, the Hawaiian Equal Rights Commission recommended that
its name be changed to the Hawaii Statehood Commission, a
proposal adopted by the territorial legislature in January 1947.
Later that year, the United States House of Representatives for
the first time passed a bill providing for Hawaiian statehood,
but the Senate defeated a move to remove the statehood bill from
its Interior and Insular Affairs Committee in the following
session. The citizens of Hawaii watched as statehood bills were
buried in one house or the other, and during the 1950's, they
increasingly doubted that statehood would ever be approved by
Congress. Statehood commissioners for Hawaii collaborated with
Delegate Jack Burns in organizing testimony for congressional
investigators. Proponents of statehood repeatedly argued that
Hawaii should not pay Federal taxes without voting privileges,
that Hawaii paid more Federal taxes than nine other states, that
the Islands had a larger population than any other territory at
the time of admission to the Union except Oklahoma, and that
the per-capita income of its citizens was higher than that of
thirty-five states. The peoples of Hawaii, they pleaded, were
literate and patriotic, ready to assume the obligations of first-class
citizenship.

Suddenly, in 1958, the statehood strategy of Delegate Burns
diverged from that of certain statehood commissioners and
Governor William Quinn in Honolulu. Following passage of the
Alaskan statehood bill by the House of Representatives, Burns
agreed with proponents of Alaskan statehood and Democratic
leaders in the Senate that it would probably destroy the chances
of statehood for either territory if Hawaii and Alaska were joined
in the same bill. Burns agreed that it would be wise for Hawaii
to wait its turn, even if it meant postponement of consideration
of the Hawaiian bill until a new Congress met in 1959. Lorrin
P. Thurston, chairman of the Hawaii Statehood Commission and
publisher of the now ardently prostatehood Advertiser, did not
agree that Hawaii's bill should be held up until the following
year. Commissioner O. P. Scares said that it was "naive" to
believe that Hawai would be better prepared in the next session

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 51

"if Alaska goes through this time." Governor Quinn called for
an immediate push and wondered why the Hawaii bill should
be held up for Alaska.

Alaska-First Plan

It became increasingly clear that Burns not only acquiesced
in, but was one of the chief strategists of the plan to separate the
two bills and push Alaska first. The theory was simple. Some
congressmen opposed Hawaii, others were antagonistic toward
Alaska. Why combine these minority oppositions to defeat an
over-all bill? Also, Burns maintained, the momentum to accept
Hawaii would be irreversible once Alaska achieved statehood.
Not only would additional pro-Hawaiian statehood congressmen
sit in both chambers, but it would be difficult to discriminate
against Hawaii as the only remaining incorporated United States
territory. Opponents of the Burns strategy in Hawaii did not
agree that the alternatives were a combined bill or Alaksa first
and Hawaii second. Thurston pointed out that as long as
Delegate Burns was committed to helping Alaska while keeping
Hawaii off the House floor, the Hawaiian bill was doomed for
1958. Soares argued that Hawaii's willingness to follow Alaska
provided statehood opponents with the argument that "we're
going soft on statehood and don't really care any longer." When
it was reported that Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson
and Democratic Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn, both from
Texas, were working closely with Burns's two-step strategy,
Republicans in Hawaii complained in the Star Bulletin, "It is
increasingly clear that in a showdown, Hawaii will never get
statehood while southern Democrats control key positions of
leadership in Congress.

Burns disagreed strongly. The Hawaii statehood bill was dead
for 1958, but he had received private assurances from Johnson
that it would receive early consideration in the Senate in 1959.
Speaker Rayburn was not committed to support statehood, but he
agreed not to stand in its way against the majority sentiment in
his own chamber. To fortify that sentiment, Burns invited
Representative Leo W. O'Brien, Democrat of New York and
chairman of a special subcommittee of the House Committee on
Interior and Insular Affairs, to visit Hawaii in late November.
Strongly sympathetic to Hawaii's statehood request, O'Brien

52 ' THE REFERENCE SHELF

brought two like-minded members of the subcommittee with
him to make what the committee called "an intensive inquiry"
on the statehood issue.

In January, the three committee members submitted their
report, signaling the opening thrust in the last congressional
battle for statehood. The report systematically rebutted the major
antistatehood arguments of the bill's two principal antagonists
in Congress, Senator James Eastland, Democrat of Mississippi,
and Representative John Pillion, Republican of New York.

Pillion's main argument was that the influence of the Inter-
national Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union in Island
politics and the extent of Communist control in the union were
too great to admit Hawaii to statehood. We would be inviting
"four Soviet agents to take seats in our Congress/' charged the
New York representative. Eastland agreed. When informed on
the Senate floor that the FBI could identify only twenty-five
known Communists in the Islands, Eastland maintained that
"they control the economic life of the Islands." A second, but
less important, argument advanced by opponents of statehood
was that Hawaii's Oriental population would never be fully
assimilated into American life. South Carolina Democratic
Senator Strom Thurmond, while emphasizing that persons of
Japanese ancestry were as moral in their way as any other group,
added that they could not adapt to American political institu-
tions. Friends of statehood in the Senate and House pointed out
privately that Senators Eastland and Thurmond may have been
less concerned about Communist influence in Hawaii or the
cultural separatism of the Japanese than they were about the
addition of two pro-civil-rights senators to the upper chamber.
A persuasive friend of statehood from Louisiana, businessman
George Lehleitner, stated that southern opposition, as measured
in votes, was even stronger against Alaska than Hawaii. . . .
Congressmen were genuinely concerned, insisted Lehleitner, when
men of such stature and influence as former Governor Lawrence
Judd and industrialist Walter Dillingham lent their support to
the charge that Hawaii was dominated by the Communist
leadership of the ILWU.

Another former governor, Ingram M. Stainback, also opposed
statehood, insisting that a commonwealth arrangement compara-
ble to that existing for Puerto Rico would be more advantageous

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 53

for Hawaii than admission as a state. The main advantage of
commonwealth status, Stainback pointed out, would be exemp-
tion from Federal taxation. A handful of citizens who agreed
with Stainback formed the Commonwealth party, but all of its
candidates were beaten badly in the 1958 election. Common-
wealth did not ring a bell with the peoples of Hawaii, and
economic and fiscal experts, while agreeing that Island taxes were
high, pointed to a 1954-55 study which showed that, after
taxation, the average citizen of Hawaii had $4 to every $1 left for
the Puerto Rican citizen, indicating the ability of the Islands to
support statehood economically.

Opinion of Islanders

A comprehensive private public-opinion survey on all the
Islands in 1958 revealed that 23 per cent of the haoles [whites]
and 27 per cent of the Hawaiians polled strongly opposed state-
hood. Congressional opponents of statehood would have rejoiced
had they known of these results. Only 43 per cent of the sample
favored immediate statehood; 24 per cent showed some degree
of opposition, and the remainder were apathetic. Of the largest
ethnic groups in the Islands, only the Japanese revealed a clear
majority backing immediate statehood. Favoring immediate
statehood were 62 per cent of the citizens of Japanese ancestry,
44 per cent of the Chinese, 39 per cent of the Filipinos, 33 per
cent of the haoles, and only 30 per cent of the Hawaiians and
part-Hawaii ans. An intensive 1959 survey of the fourteenth
representative district on Oahu showed that respondents who had
previously replied that they were "neither for nor against state-
hood" or that they were "opposed but would go along with it,"
would probably vote in favor of statehood in a referendum that
put the issue squarely, yes or no. Still, 37 per cent of the
Portuguese, 34 per cent of the haoles, and 32 per cent of the
Hawaiians interviewed in the fourteenth district refused to
endorse statehood.

Antistatehood sentiment in the Islands correlated frequently
with hostility toward Japanese. . . . When the voters of the
fourteenth representative district on Oahu were asked in early
1959 if they felt that any racial group or groups in the Islands
had too much power, 60 per cent of the Hawaiians and 56 per

54 THE REFERENCE SHELF

cent of the Portuguese in the sample replied yes. Of those who
answered affirmatively, nearly nine out of ten Hawaiians and
Chinese, eight of ten Filipinos and haoles, and nearly seven of
every ten respondents of Portuguese extraction specified the
Japanese.

The survey revealed that tensions between the Hawaiians and
Portuguese on one hand and the Japanese on the other were
recognized explicitly by members of the first two groups. Latent
hostilities between haoles and Japanese were also uncovered,
although haoles were much less open than the Portuguese [gen-
erally not considered haoles] and Hawaiians about their feelings.
Filipino resentments toward the Japanese persisted, as was shown
by intensive individual interviews.

Overwhelming Endorsement

Despite opposition to Hawaiian statehood, the strategy of
Delegate Jack Burns was validated in the second session of the
Eighty-fifth Congress when both houses voted overwhelmingly to
admit Hawaii to statehood. All that remained was for the voters
of the territory to endorse the statehood bill in the June 1959
primary election. Every major group in the Islands, from the
newspapers to the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association to the
ILWU, urged statehood. Not a single important political figure
publicly disagreed. Statehood was no longer an academic ques-
tion. The Congress of the United States had endorsed it. The
voters on every major island in the territory, despite the complex
ethnic tensions intertwined with the statehood issue, over-
whelmingly voted yes. The final count was seventeen to one,
with prostatehood victories in every representative district, and
significant antistatehood sentiment expressed only in small Por-
tuguese and Hawaiian precincts. The only one of the Islands*
240 precincts to reject statehood was tiny Niihau, all of whose
107 registered voters were Hawaiian or part-Hawaiian. On that
little island, invariably overwhelmingly Republican, Hawaiians,
still trying to recapture the past, registered their protest to the
final act in the absorption of Hawaii into the American Union.
There, the seven out of nine voters who said no to statehood
probably would have said yes to a restoration of the monarchy.

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWASS 55

But to the majority of Hawaii's citizens, justice in the Islands had
finally heen done.

Justice what did it mean? For years, Hawaii's leaders had
complained that it was unjust for Islanders to be excluded from
first-class citizenship. Now, the peoples of Hawaii would be on
an equal legal footing with their fellow citizens on the mainland.
But justice within Hawaii was another issue. Statehood symbol-
ized, but did not create, the vast changes that were taking place
in the Islands* economic, political, and social systems, making it
a "just" society.

There are tests of a just society: Is decision-making widely
shared? Are goods and services widely distributed? Is creative
talent rewarded without discrimination between sexes or among
races and religions? To these questions, Hawaii could answer
with qualifications in the affirmative, and could confidently
prophesy a stronger, less-qualified yes for the future.

Was decision-making widely shared in the year of statehood
in Hawaii? Within the past decade, the political system had
been transformed from one-party domination to vigorous com-
petition between two well-organized parties; the control of
Hawaii's wealth had been widely dispersed; strong labor unions
had been established, and competition among labor unions was
increasing.

Politics to the Fore

Poststatehood politics in Hawaii featured dozens of able
politicians from all races actively seeking to serve the new state
government. The proportion of college-educated and profession-
ally trained candidates for state office in 1960 was probably
higher than for any other state in the Union. The variety of
racial backgrounds of these candidates was incomparable. The
Democrats, especially rich in talent, found it difficult to agree on
a slate of state candidates before the June primary election.
Daniel K. Inouye and others close to Jack Burns persuaded the
Delegate to run for governor rather than for one of the seats in
the United States Senate, although Burns, assured of a Senate
victory, agreed reluctantly. The new governor, under Hawaii's
constitution, would be exceedingly powerful and would have
hundreds of appointments to make. Against the popular Burns,
whose statehood strategy had been vindicated, the Republicans

56 , THE REFERENCE SHELF

could nominate only one man the extremely popular appointed
Governor, William F. Quinn. For lieutenant governor, Demo-
cratic primary voters chose territorial Senator Mitsuyuki Kido
over Spark M. Matsunaga; for representative, Inouye defeated
Patsy Takemoto Mink; former Governor Oren E. Long and
perennial mayoralty candidate Frank F. Fasi were nominated for
election to the United States Senate. Republican strategists pri-
vately doubted that anyone could beat Inouye, but, hoping to
win at least one Senate seat, they pitted Wilfred Tsukiyama
against Long and former territorial Representative Hiram Fong,
now a successful businessman, against Fasi. The big contest, of
course, would be for the governorship. To help Quinn win
among voters of Hawaiian extraction, the Big Island's county
chairman and popular campaigner, James Kealoha, was matched
against Kido.

The Republican Oahu county chairman, Benjamin Dilling-
ham, worked tirelessly to regroup GOP forces against the
favored Democratic slate. He repeatedly criticized Burns as a
captive of the ILWU and charged that his election would aid
the cause of the Soviet Union and the Peiping government of
China. But Quinn, rather than Dillingham, sounded the major
theme in the Republican campaign. Running on a liberal
Republican platform, which he had helped to write, he spoke
of eliminating taxes on basic foods, increasing net personal-
income-tax exemptions, extending unemployment-compensation
benefits, and distributing public lands on a fee-simple basis at
rock-bottom prices to citizens of Hawaii. The last idea, intro-
duced in the closing weeks of the campaign, captured the interest
of hundreds of voters. Quinn called it the "second mahele"
[land reform] after the Great Mahele of the nineteenth century,
perhaps without realizing that the mid-nineteenth-century reform
was viewed by Hawaiian voters as a fraud against their people.
Nevertheless, Quinn and his scheme for land reform represented
the desire of a growing number of Republican politicians to
identify with the hopes and needs of the voters of various ethnic
strains and to avoid positions and symbols that would associate
them with the Republican party of the past. Among the new
liberals was territorial Representative Frank Judd from Oahu's
seventeenth district. Judd, whose famous great-grandfather had
arrived in the Islands in 1828, bore a name that, as much as any

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWASS 57

in the Islands, was identified with the past. But he emphasized
the need for the Republicans to establish a liberal record, to
become the party of the people. Another missionary descendant,
Ballard Atherton, president of the Hawaiian Telephone Company
and former chairman of the City Charter Commission, was not a
candidate for office, but he encouraged fellow Republicans to
adopt a positive approach on the land question and to become
sensitive to the special demands of Hawaii's ethnic groups.
Hebden Porteus, popular senator from Oahu's fourth district, also
decried what he called "110 per cent Republicans who wanted to
talk only about the devaluation of the dollar and high taxes/ 9
Porteus, an Alexander & Baldwin [one of the "Big Five" sugar
factors and business corporations] lawyer, helped write the liberal
Republican platform planks on land and taxes, and encouraged
large estates to open up more land to home owners. On Maui,
plantation executive John E. Milligan joined the liberal
Republican faction.

Election Results

When the votes were counted, these Republican liberals,
including Quinn, were victorious, proving that the revolution of
1954 had far from destroyed the Republican party in Hawaii.
There had never been so close an election in Hawaii's history.
Individual Republicans, among them victorious Quinn, Kealoha,
and Fong, showed amazing strength in Democratic districts. In
addition to the governorship, lieutenant governorship, and one
United States Senate seat, the Republicans also recaptured control
of the territorial now the state Senate. The Democrats won a
majority in the new state House of Representatives, Long defeated
Tsukiyama, and Inouye won a magnificent landslide victory, to
become the first American of Japanese ancestry named to the
United States House of Representatives.

Although there is a serious question as to whether the ends of
democracy are well served when power is so sharply split between
the two political parties that it is difficult for the leaders of either
party to be held responsible to the electorate, there could be no
doubt that political power in the Islands was now fluid, that
opportunities for advancement in politics were open to talent
through two keenly competitive political parties.

58 THE REFERENCE SHELF

WHAT STATEHOOD MEANS TO HAWAII 7

Hawaii comes into the American Union with the experience
of more than a century of self-government. Since the adoption
of a constitution by King Kamehameha III in 1840, followed in
1848 by a division of the land which removed the physical basis
for the earlier feudal system, Hawaii has been ruled under
constitutional lawas kingdom, republic, and organized territory.
Long before its annexation to the United States in 1898, it had
adopted the Anglo-American common law and governmental
practices familiar to Americans, which culminated in the deposi-
tion of the monarchy in 1893, As a sovereign republic and as a
territory of the United States, it has financed and (except during
a period of martial law during World War II) has ruled itself
with a minimum of assistance and direction from the Federal
Government.

The coming of statehood, then, will not basically change the
structure or fabric of government in Hawaii. Unlike Alaska, her
sister novitiate, Hawaii will not suddenly face the necessity of
assuming governmental burdens for example in public health,
highways, education which had previously been borne in whole
or in part by the national Government. On statehood day, no
new function will have to be assumed by the government of the
new state. The schools, the highway program, the administration
of justice, the revenue structure, health and welfare services and,
without important exception, all the rest of the governmental
program, will continue to operate as on the preceding day, and
for the most part under the direction of the same people.

Acting in a community accustomed to self-government, leg-
islatures and governors have kept Hawaii well abreast of govern-
mental practices elsewhere in the nation. It would be easy to
compile a long list of statutes in the fields of public health,
-education, agriculture, labor, and taxation in which Hawaii has
pioneered or has been in the van of American jurisdictions. It
has not looked for leadership to the Interior Department or other
agencies in Washington.

T From article by Robert M. Kamins, professor of economics. University of Hawaii.
State Government. 32:156-61. Summer '59. Reprinted by permission.

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 59

Impact on Local Government

Changes there will be, of course. The first change is being
experienced as this is written, months in advance of statehood.
Persons aged 20 are registering for the first state elections, sched-
uled for June 27 and July 28, as permitted by the state con-
stitution, under the provisions of which the elections will be
conducted. (Alaska set the minimum voting age at 19; Georgia
and Kentucky have set the minimum at 18; all other states
at 21.) . . .

Popular election may be expected to strengthen the office
of the governor, particularly since a "short-ballot" constitution
gives the governor authority to appoint all department heads
as well as members of the state judiciary. Even though Hawaii
has a well-developed civil service system, patronage opportuni-
ties for the executive will be abundant. A by-product will be
the injection of additional zest to political action in Hawaii,
already vigorous with strong Democratic and Republican parties.

If, as appears likely, the office of governor will lie at the
center of heightened political activity in this new state, the
election of two national senators and one or two congressmen,
cannot but add to the enlivenment of partisan competition.
Coincidental ly, the adoption in 1959 of a charter for the city-
county of Honolulu, which enlarges the membership of the
municipal council while strengthening the position of the mayor,
probably will further invigorate the striving at the polls. . . .

Under rather remarkable constitutional relationships with
the Federal Government, one department of the Hawaii govern-
ment is protected against change by the state legislature. The
Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920, a Federal statute,
established the Hawaiian Homes Commission, a territorial agency
designed to assist Polynesian Hawaiians in maintaining their
communities and creating new ones. Relatively large areas
of public land have been made available by the commission
to persons of Hawaiian ancestry (of at least half blood, in
recent years) as residential sites and agricultural homesteads.
Hawaiians receiving land grants are given ninety-nine-year
leases, for which they pay an annual rent of $1.00. Holders
may also receive low-interest loans from the commission.

60 THE REFERENCE SHIELD

The state constitution adopts the Hawaiian Homes Com-
mission Act on behalf of the state, agreeing that "the spirit
of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act looking to the continu-
ance of the Hawaiian homes project for the further rehabilita-
tion of the Hawaiian race shall be faithfully carried out."
Furthermore, Congress, in the act of admission, permits the
amendment (in the constitution or by statute) of administra-
tive provisions of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act but
prohibits the new state from changing the provisions relating to
the commission's funds, to change the qualifications to hold
land under the act, or to decrease the benefits of Hawaiian
landholders, unless permitted by Congress. This last tie to the
Federal apron strings Congress would not cut.

Search of the Laws

Attainment of statehood makes it necessary to study the
statutes under which Hawaii has been governed. In Washing-
ton, the Budget Bureau is examining the Federal statutes ap-
plicable to Hawaii, to determine if statehood will change their
applicability. (By way of example, in Hawaii as a territory,
business transacted has been ipso facto considered to be in
interstate commerce for the purpose of some Federal laws. In
Hawaii as a state, presumably the same legal tests that are
used elsewhere in the United States will determine what is inter-
state commerce and what is not.) Under an executive order,
the Budget Bureau is to report its findings to the President.

In Honolulu, meantime the legislature has authorized the
Hawaii attorney general to consider the effect of statehood
on the laws under which the state is ruled, both those enacted
by Congress and those of the Hawaii legislature.

The study is given urgency by a provision in the Admission
Act which repeals within two years of the date of statehood
all territorial laws enacted by Congress. This refers to laws
"the validity of which is dependent solely upon the authority
of the Congress to provide for the government of Hawaii 9 * as
a territory. . . .

Putting the state constitution into effect changes the ad-
ministration of the laws as well as their form and content.
Hawaii the territory has had a three-member Supreme Court,

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AN HAWAII 61

appointed by the President. Under the constitution this ap-
pellate court is expanded to five, appointed by the governor,
and it is to be served by an administrative director. The estab-
lishment of the latter position, accomplished by the last terri-
torial legislature in anticipation of statehood, was recommended
in a 1957 survey of Hawaii's judiciary as being of primary im-
portance to improve the administration of justice. . . .

Effects in Washington

More profound effects of statehood may stem from Hawaii's
gaining votes, as well as a voice, in Congress than from changes
in the local government of the Islands. The sugar industry,
still the largest grouping of private enterprises despite the postwar
diversification of Hawaii's economy, has always been concerned
about its marketing quota under the sugar acts while Hawaii
remained a territory. Now that it is a state with as many
Senate votes as any other, Hawaii's quota seems more secure.
If production on the shrinking acreage utilized by cane planta-
tions should increase over a million tons Hawaii's approximate
annual allotment on the national market perhaps the quota
can be enlarged for the state of Hawaii. Producers of other
local agricultural crops, notably coffee, which has recently
suffered from depressed world prices, are now beginning to ask
if the new senators and representative cannot obtain coverage
for their crops under the farm price support programs.

Statehood also promises to insure the stability of another
source of mainland dollars, the largest defense expenditures.
Hawaii's economic development in recent years may be viewed
as a race against possible disarmament or movement of mili-
tary establishments out of Hawaii. If the Islands are to be
demilitarized ultimately (and from their position in the Pacific
the people of Hawaii are at least as concerned as any other
portion of America's population with the dangers of continued
international tensions) , two senators and a representative may be
able to cushion the economic shock by obtaining federally fi-
nanced public works in larger quantity than Hawaii the territory
could have expected.

Hawaii is land-hungry, and statehood may cause the re-
lease by military agencies of substantial acreages held since

42 THE REFERENCE SHELF

World War H, currently put by the United States to infre-
quent or marginal use. Under the Admission Act, each Federal
agency having control over any property in Hawaii is required
within five years of the date of statehood to report to the
President concerning its continued need for each parcel. If
the President determines that any land is no longer needed by
the United States, the act provides that it shall be returned
to Hawaii.

By such transfers, Hawaii would regain at least a portion
of the public lands which were ceded to the United States in
1898 at the time of annexation. Hawaii's government hopes
that the areas returned will be substantial, particularly on the
island of Oahu, where a rapidly increasing population is press-
ing hard against limited amounts of readily usable land. The
land so transferred to the state government will become, under
the Admission Act, a public trust for the support of the public
schools, for the betterment of native Hawaiians, for development
of farm and home ownership, and for similar purposes.

Furthermore, the Admission Act applies to Hawaii the Sub-
merged Lands and Outer Continental Shelf Lands Acts of 1953.
Hawaii has no offshore deposits of oil, the resource which
supplied much of the motivation for passing these Federal laws.
But it does have shallow tidal lands which can be filled in,
now that their control is firmly vested in the state, to supply
needed space for an expanding population and tourist trade.
With some difficulty, Hawaii obtained congressional permission
last year to fill and use a limited area extending from the shores
of Waikiki. Now the littoral of any of the Islands can be
expanded as the need arises and resources permit.

Economic Stimulus

Obtaining the use of more land, particularly on densely
populated Oahu, constitutes the most obvious stimulation of eco-
nomic growth under statehood. Other influences are less tan-
gible but also important.

The greatest of these is the familiarity which Hawaii will
gain for investors and merchants, for tourists and American
migrants, as a state of the Union. During the past several
decades an increasing part of the mainland population acquired

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 62

some knowledge of Hawaii and its institutions, but a surprisingly
large number of mainland Americans still wondered about the
language, the money and the tariff system of the territory of
Hawaii. It is already apparent that the state of Hawaii is
more familiar, and therefore inspires greater confidence as a
place for investment or business enterprise. Without much
doubt, the current flurry of economic expansion the construc-
tion of Hawaii's first oil refinery, first steel mills, first cement
plants, additional small manufactures, new hotels, shopping
centers and residential areas, the commercial exploration of
bauxite (the state's only known mineral resource), will be
accelerated and sustained by business attracted to Hawaii by
the spotlight of statehood.

Accelerated movement of persons to Hawaii from other parts
of the United States is also to be expected movement to a
"paradise" which statehood has brought closer, in the popular
image, to accustomed American ways. Such an influx, when
added to the established population growth of the Islands, will
place still greater pressure on the intensively utilized land area
of Oahu, forcing an expansion of economic growth in the other
seven principal islands of the chain. All of the latter are now
relatively underdeveloped, with static or declining populations.
The expansion will require the establishment of cheap inter-
island travel, now limited to plane and barge traffic, the supply-
ing of water to arid lands, a shift of dairy and truck fanning
from Oahu to its neighboring islands, the growth of villages
into towns and towns into cities, the expansion of commercial
and governmental services in all areas in a word, the over-all
enlargement of virtually every phase of Hawaiian activity.

Social Aspects

Those who have found pleasure in living here cannot but
view with mixed feelings the prospect of a more crowded Hawaii.
There is reason to believe that the changes associated with
economic expansion will be gradual, but their cumulative ef-
fects will be profound.

A minority in Hawaii who have opposed statehood have
feared some of these effects. Many persons of Hawaiian an-
cestry, justifiably proud of their Polynesian antecedents (and

64 THE REFERENCE SHELF

sometimes idealizing the golden days before Captain Cook,
before the missionaries, before the revolution which toppled
the monarchy, or before the tide of migration from the main-
land pulled in by World War II) have forebodings that they
and their culture will be lost in the new Hawaii, pushed aside
by a more aggressive commercialism. Were this to happen,
and it does not yet seem imminent,, statehood would not be
the cause but rather the symbol of a social evolution of al-
most two hundred years. What may rather result is a Hawaii
which moves closer to mainland living patterns, yet retains in its
amalgam much of the graciousness and individuality of the
Hawaiian people.

Older Caucasian settlers, of families established in Hawaii
for a century or more, may also wonder if their predominance
in business, politics and society will be further reduced by state-
hood. Since World War II, and particularly in the past decade,
newer settlers from the Orient have begun to assume leader-
ship in the community. However, members of these very families,
not unanimously but in strength, have supported the long drive
for statehood along with the rest of the population. . . .

Effects on the United States

Incompletely told, these are some of the effects which state-
hood will have on Hawaii, and some of the local reactions to
the changes. There will also be important effects upon the
United States as a whole.

Quantitatively, it might be thought that Hawaii is too small,
measured against the rest of the country, to have much bearing
on the nation's life. The new state comprises only about three
tenths of one per cent of the population of the United States,
and two tenths of one per cent of its area. Yet, there is good
reason to believe that this small region will soon play an im-
portant part in the rounding out of America and in its inter-
national relations.

To date, because it was initially settled by migrants from
Europe and Africa, the mainland United States has had little
knowledge of Asia and its peoples, little ability to communicate
with them or to understand firsthand their problems, fears
and desires. The admission of Hawaii to statehood demon-

THi HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 65

strates to the nations of the Orient that the racial attitudes of
the United States are not what its traducers have said. Statehood
also creates in Hawaii a pool of first-class Americans of Oriental
ancestry, some of whom (though deplorably few) are able to
speak one or more of the languages of the East, who can be
called upon to represent the United States in discussions with
Asian countries.

The preamble to the state constitution manifests some of
the attributes of the people of Hawaii which especially qualify
them to serve the United States in the conduct of international
relations:

We, the people of the State of Hawaii, grateful for Divine Guid-
ance, and mindful of our Hawaiian heritage, reaffirm our belief in a
government of the people, by the people and for the people, and with
an understanding heart toward all the peoples of the earth, do hereby
ordain and establish this constitution for the State of Hawaii.

BACKGROUND ON THE FIFTIETH STATE 8

America, in accepting Hawaii as the fiftieth state, is much
like a man who finds himself married to a picture bride. He
does not really know her, but as he starts living with her he
discovers that she is beautiful, intelligent and gifted with a
dowry.

Physically, Hawaii is exquisite. Palm trees bend into the
wind and glistening lagoons tempt the eye. Across one of the
Islands (Kauai) runs a deep geological gash as colorful as the
Grand Canyon; it tells, in layer after layer of dazzling rock,
the story of how the Islands sprang from volcanic origins. On
another island, Hawaii, active volcanoes rise to snow-covered
peaks nearly fourteen thousand feet high. Waterfalls are so
numerous they are not named and cliffs that drop two thousand
feet into the sea are common.

It is a land of flowers, so brilliant that they are difficult
to visualize. They blossom all year round: orchids, torch ginger,
plumiera, hibiscus and bird-of-paradise. There is the beefsteak
plant, with leaves the size of platters and startling red. There

8 From " 'Aloha* for the Fiftieth State," by Tames A. Michener, author of Tales of
the South Pacific, Hawaii, and other novels. New York Times Magazine, p 144-.
Ap. 19, '59. Copyright 1959 by James A. Michener. Reprinted by permission of the
author.

66 THE REFERENCE SHELF

Is the lowly croton, a winsome shrub whose iridescent leaves
cover a spectrum of more than twenty colors, dominated by
gold and purple and rust. This is my favorite.

But most of all, Hawaii is a land of people, an amalgam
of many types. Two per cent are full-blooded Hawaiians,
brothers of those Polynesians who inhabit Tahiti and Samoa;
16 per cent are part-Hawaiian, and this segment is growing;
25 per cent are ordinary mainland white Americans, and since
immigration from Asia is halted while, with statehood, move-
ment from the mainland will increase, this is the fastest-growing
group; 2 per cent are Puerto Ricans; and I per cent are from
European countries. That leaves 54 per cent as having come
from Asia: Filipinos, 12 per cent; Chinese, 6 per cent; Koreans,
1 per cent; and Japanese, 35 per cent, which makes them the
largest single ethnic group.

The most important fact about Hawaii is that these varied
peoples live together in harmony. There is practically no race
discrimination. . . . However, many Caucasians and Orientals
prefer to live strictly within their own communities, and there
is no great flood of intermarriage. A Caucasian boy who wants
to marry a Japanese girl may have a very tough time, indeed
mostly from the Japanese family.

Two common rumors about Hawaii must be rejected. First,
Hawaii is not going to be submerged in an Oriental tidal wave.
An educated guess would suggest that today the economic con-
trol of the Islands is vested as follows: white Americans, 70
per cent; Chinese, 20 per cent; Japanese, 10 per cent. Second,
Hawaii is not governed dictatorially by the "Big Five," the
informal combination of sugar factors who once ruled the
Islands in a benevolent feudalism. The Big Five are still strong,
capable and conservative, but they are not major landowners
and they do not control the legislature nor do they exercise
a veto power over much of anything. Commercially they are
an asset to the Islands, and in their junior offices one begins
to find smart young Chinese and Japanese.

Credit for the amazing manner in which so many diverse
people live together so easily must be given to three groups.
First, the gentle Polynesians who inhabited the Islands originally
were by nature inclined to accept other races, and the dominant
spirit of Hawaii has always been aloha, gracious welcome.

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 67

Second, the missionaries who stamped the Islands with their
rigorous concepts were liberal Congregationalists from New Eng-
land who believed in fellowship, education and the immanent
presence of God. Hawaii's heritage derives from New England,
not California, and Chinese immigrants were not abused in
the Islands because the missionaries would not tolerate such
behavior. It has been said, "These missionaries did not love
Chinese and Japanese, but they did love justice." On this basic
Christian justice, Hawaii was founded.

But the aloha of the Polynesians and the rectitude of the
missionaries would have accomplished little if the next wave
of immigrants had been unequal to the occasion. Chinese and
Japanese in large numbers were imported to work the sugar
fields and after indentures of ten years were supposed to go back
to Asia. Instead, they saved money, kept out of trouble, and
soon owned either stores or lands. They were admirable citi-
zens and built themselves securely into Hawaiian society. Their
major characteristic was an overwhelming passion for education,
and in the early days it was not uncommon for a Japanese
field hand making 77 cents a day to send five children through
high school and university. The ablest son might even go on
to become a lawyer at Michigan or a doctor at Perm. Among
the best-educated people in America are the Chinese and Japa-
nese of Hawaii.

Five additional assets help make Hawaii a fine state. The
population is young and vigorous. Of a dozen political leaders,
eight will be under forty. . . .

Hawaii is a wealthy state. It pays enormous taxes to the
Federal Government. People live well. There are no extensive
slums or depressed areas. Citizens save money and invest in the
future. If one considers only the financial balance sheet, Amer-
ica got a great bargain when she accepted Hawaii.

Contrary to the popular image, men in Hawaii work hard.
Hawaii was not originally suited to sugar and pineapple, for
there were deficiencies in the soil and never enough water.
Clever men corrected the soil and dug for water deep wells
and miles of tunnels through the hearts of mountains. If Hawaii
is a paradise and I think it is men made it so.

Hawaii is by far the most advanced state culturally that
has ever been admitted to the Union. It has a famous prepara-

68 THE REFERENCE SHELF

tory school dating back to the 1840's, a strong university, fine
churches, interesting newspapers and television stations. Its his-
torical libraries are immensely rich, and its symphony and
theatrical groups strong. But the intellectual glory of Hawaii
is its pair of museums: the Bishop is about the world's best in
Pacific lore; the Academy of Arts owns one of the finest col-
lections of Oriental art.

Finally, Hawaii is a forward-looking state. Its labor laws
are more liberal than those of many other areas. It spends a
high percentage of its income on education. Its health services
are first rate and the proud citizen is apt to say, "We have the
best hospitals and the poorest jails in America." Hawaii pre-
fers it that way.

I could continue for many pages listing the virtues of Hawaii,
but ... I think it might be more instructive to explain some
of the problems that face the Islands.

Land. No large area of the United States is more limited
by land shortage than Hawaii. On Oahu, the site of Honolulu,
population density is 835 per square mile, a figure comparable
to Belgium's and exceeding Indonesia's. At every point this
lack of land inhibits growth. Men cannot find land for either
their businesses or their homes, and one of the principal reasons
people leave Hawaii is the complaint: a We couldn't find a
place to live."

The problem is exacerbated by the fact that what land exists
is held in large parcels by a few. The six principal owners
control 26 per cent of all available land. Sixty owners control
80 per cent, and since they have been able to prevent their
holdings from being properly taxed, that burden falls upon
personal income.

In Honolulu a man doesn't buy land by the acre. He buys
it by the square foot, and a reasonable figure for a good lot
would be $2.50 a foot, or about $110,000 an acre provided
he could find one. Choice land runs about $1.2 million an
acre. What the home-seeker does is to lease a plot for fifty-five
years with the understanding that each ten years the terms of
his lease may be renegotiated upward.

Many businesses seem reluctant to launch major projects on
land they cannot own and on which they face upward renegotia-
tion every ten years.

THE HiW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 69

Taxes. Since land is not adequately taxed, income has to be
overtaxed, and Hawaii is one of the most heavily burdened areas
in the world. Personal income taxes quickly rise to the 9 per
cent level, topped by an across-the-board levy of 3.5 per cent
on any business activity. This makes retirement of people with
middle incomes to Hawaii rather unlikely. Artists, writers and
musicians should also think twice before fleeing to paradise;
they, too, must pay 3.5 per cent on their business activity. And
because Hawaii has such a youthful population, much of which
earns no income, personal taxes will probably rise rather than
diminish.

Economy. Fifteen years ago Hawaii was in a rather more
precarious position than now. Then Island income depended
upon military expenditures, sugar and pineapples, in that order,
and a disruption in any one could have plunged the Islands into
depression. Today the economy rests on five pillars. The mili-
tary investment, represented by sixteen major installations, in-
cluding Pearl Harbor, Hickam Air Force Base and Schofield
Barracks, with 50,000 uniformed personnel, 50,000 dependents
and 20,000 civilian employees, accounts for 38 per cent of the
Islands' income or $327 million yearly; then come construction
($185 million), sugar ($145 million), pineapples ($124 million),
and tourism ($100 million).

It seems likely that the last category will ultimately rise to
second place, for there are few areas in America more appealing
than Hawaii. But this introduces a major problem: as tourists
increase, the natural facilities that attract them diminish. The
physical appearance of Waikiki has slipped in the past decade
and those responsible seem to lack both the vision and the
ambition to correct the drift. New resort hotels in less developed
areas are needed and such projects are being actively pursued.

Labor -management relations. Hawaii has not yet achieved a
mature attitude on the interlocking responsibilities of labor and
management. Because the Big Five long refused to permit
unionization, labor leaders find it profitable to revive old bitter-
ness in a manner that became unfashionable on the mainland
twenty years ago. And because some leaders of the longshore-
men's union were at one time communistically inclined, man-
agement tends to castigate all labor as extremely radical. How-
ever, the smart young executives who are now assuming leader-

70 THE REFERENCE SHELF

ship of the great corporations are finding it possible to work
with labor.

Bloc voting. A constant fear in Hawaii is that the various
races may begin to vote in blocs, Caucasians voting only for
Caucasian politicians, Orientals only for Orientals. But a study
of voting records fails to show that this has so far happened.
Governor Bill Quinn, an astute politician guesses: "Hawaii will
probably become a lot like Boston. If a Japanese voter doesn't
know anyone on the ticket, he'll naturally vote for a Japanese,
the way the Irish vote Irish in Boston, on the grounds that
'he's one of us. s But I have found that if any of our voters know
the men running, they pick and choose with great intelligence."

Imbalance among the Islands. Hawaii's second permanent
headache, after land, is the fact that, while the island of Oahu
grows richer and gains in population, the neighboring islands,
which are in many respects more attractive, grow poorer and
lose population. Thus Oahu, with only 9 per cent of the land,
produces about 80 per cent of the income and houses 79 per
cent of the population. Legislating thus becomes a dogfight
between Oahu and the rest of the pack. If tourists could be
lured away from conventional Waikiki to the neighboring is-
lands, part of the necessary corrective would have been under-
taken; but since this seems difficult to do, the imbalance will
probably worsen.

Lack of support for culture. The fine cultural institutions
which I have praised have been largely created and supported
by the private charity of the great missionary and industrial
families, but the time has come when these older families
should not be expected to continue this burden. Yet replace-
ments have not been found. Rich Orientals have not discovered
that Uncle Sam, through generous provisions in tax laws, makes
it prudent to give money to public institutions.

For example, on the mainland a man who graduates from
Harvard may express his mature gratitude with the gift of a
chair, but this does not happen in Hawaii where the lack of
support suffered by the university is a scandal.

The "da kine" plague. An unnecessary handicap faced by
Hawaii is its addiction to pidgin English, a barbarous lingua
franca derived from bad English, Hawaiian, Chinese, Portuguese
and Japanese, all delivered in an incredible sing-song. The

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWA!! 71

phrase "da kine," from "that kind," is used in everything. A
man who wants to tell his friend that a sandwich costs too
much will sing, "Eh, blalah! Da kine sammitch pipty cent takai
too much!"

Sensible parents try to combat pidgin, but it remains a
damnable burden. Entire schools succumb to it and occasion-
ally even teachers take the easy way, so that one generation
after another hampers itself by addiction to this folly. How-
ever, some firms are beginning to reject young people who speak
pidgin and the university is trying to stamp out the barbarism.

Lack of a name. A minor, but serious, problem is that there
is no name for the people who inhabit Hawaii. A man who
lives in Texas is a Texan and is proud of it. I used to be a
Pennsylvanian and for a while a New Yorker. But what am I
now? I can't be called a Hawaiian, because that name is re-
served for the Polynesians. Possibly we will all become "Is-
landers," but in the meantime the fact that we have no com-
mon name perpetuates old cleavages.

Discrimination. Since Hawaii is famous for the fact that
all its people live together in enviable harmony, it is regrettable
that a few major institutions still practice racial segregation.
There are clubs where Orientals are not permitted, fine resi-
dential streets where they are not welcome to live. (On the
other hand, Orientals have other clubs to which Caucasians
are not admitted.) With the passage of years such customs
seem bound to vanish. In the meantime they do little harm
and do not deter me from stating that people live together
more harmoniously in Hawaii than in any other area I know.

Striking a balance between strength and weakness, it is obvi-
ous that Hawaii is going to be a strong state. It is young,
progressive, adventurous. It is able to pay its way and to con-
tribute richly to American life. Its major contributions will
probably be along these lines.

Vacation land. In addition to its great natural beauty,
Hawaii has an almost perfect climate. It never gets as hot as
New York does in summer. It never gets cold. About ten days a
year, when the northeast trade winds fail to blow, things can
get a bit sticky. For the rest of the time there is probably no
place in the world with a better climate. Hawaii is thus an

72 THE REFERENCE SHELF

ideal vacation land and, with jet aircraft, is practically next
door to places like Chicago and St. Louis.

Leadership in internal problems. It is not yet clear what
kind of men the Islands will send back to Washington. . . .
Possibly one or two will be Oriental, for Hawaii has a wealth
of able Chinese and Japanese who would grace any legislative
assembly in the world. But whoever goes to Washington will
embody the Hawaiian spirit of aloha, and will be well grounded
in American principles. Such men, or perhaps women, will
lend our national leadership a breadth of experience which will
be good for America.

The United States faces grave internal problems arising from
race relations. In the next decade states like Alabama, Missis-
sippi, Georgia, and South Carolina will undergo trying experi-
ences in which the tensions of Little Rock may be repeated
many times over. America is going to be pleasantly surprised at
what Hawaii will be able to contribute to the relaxation of
such tensions.

Hawaiian senators and representatives are going to be men of
the most conciliatory character. They are not going to shout
and bellow. By their quiet precept they will encourage all who
seek logical and unemotional solutions. They will be proof
that conciliation is possible.

On the other hand, agitators and men of ill will can no
longer cry, "It can't be done!" In Hawaii, quietly and without
anger, we have done it.

Help with foreign problems. One of America's major con-
cerns is its relationship to foreign powers, and we are trying
to assure uncommitted or wavering nations that they ought to
trust in our good intentions. A serious bar to our efforts has
been the bad publicity stemming from Little Rock. The Com-
munist Chinese and Russians have abused us severely on that
issue.

But with the admission of Hawaii, the Communist propa-
ganda line collapses. Congress has demonstrated anew our his-
toric attitude toward other peoples. We have shown that we
can accept men of varying colors. Russia claims "Americans
hate Orientals." We do not, and we have proved that we don't.

Let me put the significance of Hawaiian statehood this way:
Today the job of every State Department official in Asia and

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 73

Africa has become a little easier; the words of every United
States Information Service man have become a lot more per-
suasive.

But the greatest boon to America will be in the realm of
the spirit. For sixty-one years our nation held in the middle
of the Pacific Ocean a group of islands to which statehood had
been implicitly promised. Over the years, because we feared
distance and skins of different colors and perhaps because we
feared the responsibility of taking a new step we failed to
fulfill that implied promise. Then, one by one, the reasons
against statehood vanished until at last the nation was faced
with one simple moral problem: Were we willing to redeem
an old pledge?

Those of us in Hawaii will appreciate what a bold step
America has taken in extending statehood to the Islands. That
Congress chose to do so is a supreme joy to most of the
Islanders, and we are determined that America shall never
regret that daring decision. And for its part, the United States
today is a little stronger, a little more secure, a little more
courageous. To me it looks like a great bargain all the way
round.

II. LIFE AND SOCIETY IN THE NEW STATES

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

Alaska and Hawaii are the "youngest" states in more ways
than one. Their populations have an average age which is lower
than that of any other state in the Union. Beyond that, as well,
the new states appear young at heart. There is a zest and a
swing to life in these outlying regions of America that give
them certainly in the case of Alaska and even in the case of
Hawaii a frontier spirit and buoyancy. In their own highly
individualistic ways, the new states are clearing new frontiers
in the realm of social relations for America.

This is particularly the case in Hawaii, a long-fabled melting
pot of race and creed. Here men have learned by the pressure
of necessity and thickly-settled living to open their doors to
others of widely varying background and nationality. In Alaska,
perhaps the rugged conditions of frontier living have made the
worth of a human being measurable in terms other than skin
pigmentation or national origin. Yet because both of these states
have dynamic societies in a state of constant flux, they have their
problems, too. Hawaii has made enormous strides within the
past decades in bringing its nonwhite population to a status of
equality, but there remain some influences working toward an
older order of affairs. Alaska strives mightily to do justice to its
"natives" the Eskimo, the Indian, and the Aleut yet these
groups remain in danger of suffering from the injustices of a
rapidly evolving society.

This section examines life and the social structure, with
particular emphasis upon so-called minority problems. In the
first article, a writer whose sympathies are obviously strongly
attached to the forty-ninth state gives his colorful impressions
of day-to-day living in Alaska. Readers may be surprised to note
that all is not dogsled and snowdrift. In the second article an
anthropologist discusses the problems of the "new Alaskan
Eskimo" the Eskimo who is aware of mechanical refrigeration
and, what's more, appreciates it. The next article is a forceful

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 75

enumeration of the rights of Alaska's native peoples and the
wrongs currently being perpetrated against them. It calls for
greater attention to problem areas.

In the final two articles, dealing with race relations in
Hawaii, a professor of sociology gives first a historical summary
of that state's racial heritage and next an over-all view of the
status of racial groups in the Hawaii of today.

LIFE IN ALASKA 1

The combination of being the largest state in the Union and
having the smallest population gives Alaska a statistical portrait
of extreme isolation, "bush" living. The population density is
less than 1 person per square mile, compared with an average
U.S. density of more than 50 per square mile. In some areas of
Alaska, a "village" may consist of a handful of Indians or
Eskimos or a cluster of hunters' shacks in a permanent camp.
Nearly half the 287 inhabited areas of Alaska contain less than
100 persons. In some 30 per cent of the remaining inhabited
areas, the population is between 100 and 200. From these figures
it is possible to "prove" and many have done just that the
isolated existence of Alaskans.

However, expect to find most Alaskans living a dull, insular
life and you may expect to be disappointed. Actually, nearly
three quarters of all Alaskans live in and around the four largest
cities . . . [Anchorage, Fairbanks, Ketchikan, and Juneau].

The great majority of Alaskans live comfortably in modern
urban and suburban communities. There are, to be sure, rugged
individualists who prefer to live in comparatively primitive shacks
or log cabins, miles from town, but even these dwellings are
usually equipped with modern conveniences electricity, running
water, telephones, and sometimes automatic oil or LP [liquefied
petroleum] gas heat. A visitor to Spenard or City View, suburbs
of Anchorage, might well believe he had never left Hempstead,
Long Island, the outskirts of Los Angeles, or the suburbs of
Denver. Many parts of Juneau, in fact, resemble the quiet,
picturesque, hilly streets of San Francisco.

the book This Is Alaska, by Harry Kursh, who has traveled widely in
Alaska and who has written several books that touch upon the state. Prentice-Hall.
Englewood Cliffs, N.J. '61. p 30-42. 1961 by Harry Kursh. Published by Prentice-
Hall, Inc. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Reprinted by permission.

76 THE REFERENCE SHELF

The most distinctive feature of life in Alaska is that it
represents a melting pot of Americans from every state in the
Union. Consequently, most Alaskans tend to live, work and
build in the American tradition. Progress is apt to be character-
ized by bigger and better split-level homes and well-kept lawns,
a car in every garage, supermarket shopping, PTA meetings,
weekly Rotary luncheons, Lion lectures, and a Chamber of
Commerce in every town with two or more merchants.

The most rapid period of population growth for Alaska oc-
curred after World War II. In October 1867, when a sixteen-
year-old boy raised the first Stars and Stripes over Alaska, there
were only about 500 white persons in the territory and approxi-
mately 33,000 aborigines (Eskimos, Indians and Aleuts). Since
then the native population has remained almost static, but the
total population has increased from 128,000 in 1950 to more than
220,000, including about 47,000 military personnel and their
dependents, most of whom are stationed at Elmendorf Air Force
Base and Fort Richardson, outside Anchorage, and at Ladd and
Eielson Air Force Bases near Fairbanks. However, the military
and their dependents have been in Alaska in such great numbers
and for so many years that Alaskans tend to consider them part
of the total resident population.

For the most part, newcomers from other states should have
no difficulty in adjusting to life in Alaska. There is little in
Alaskan social and cultural life that may seem foreign or unique
to Americans.

A Closer Look at Alaskans

When an Alaskan says "native," he generally refers to an
Eskimo, Indian, or Aleut, of whom there are approximately
35,000.

Most Eskimos live in the far north, the Indians in the south-
eastern areas, and the Aleuts, a relatively small number, in the
southwestern areas, chiefly the Aleutian Islands and the Alaska
Peninsula. Many of the natives have retained their cultural and
tribal traditions, but nearly all speak English and in almost
every respect are "Americanized. 5 '

There are also about 5,000 other nonwhites in Alaska, mostly
American Negroes and Filipinos. The latter came long ago to
work in the fishing industries.

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 77

Among normative Alaskans there are basically two categories
of Americans: those who came to Alaska for a specific Job or
under military assignment and chose to remain; and those who
came to find a new way of life. According to an Alaskan market
study published by Benton and Bowles of New York, the "average
Alaskan is a newcomer. He and his family have lived in the
forty-ninth state for only eight or ten years."

Youthful and Young at Heart

Essentially, Alaska is a youthful state. There are proportion-
ately more younger people in Alaska than in any other state.
The number of children under five years of age is twice the
national average; and the number of Alaskans over sixty-five
is half the national average. . . .

This youthful composition of Alaska is one of its principal
assets and clearly a basis for rapid growth.

But in recent years Alaska has been attracting an increasing
number of newcomers who are young more at heart than in age.
Many arrive having successfully raised a family elsewhere and
then grown restive with a sedate, almost routine way of life:

Typical was the story of Mr. and Mrs. Ed Perkins, formerly
of Seattle, both around sixty years of age. He had been a car-
penter, she a teacher. To explain why they came to Alaska and
why they enjoy their new life in the forty-ninth state, Mr. and
Mrs. Perkins like to tell the story of a friend who came to visit
them at the cabin they had built themselves, overlooking an
exquisite view of sea and mountains near Cook Inlet, not far
from Anchorage. Plainly puzzled and constantly looking about
the cabin, the friend would remark, "I don't know why you left
the comforts of your Seattle home where all you had to do was
push a button; here you don't even have electricity. You even
have to carry water to flush that 'modem' toilet you brag aboutl"

"He kept that up all the time he was here," Mrs. Perkins said,
"and he couldn't even see the inlet below us, or the mountains
across, or the woods behind us. And while he was here we talked
about a camping trip we were going to take. He said, 'Camping
trip! Great Scot, you're camping all the time!'"

Most people, young and old, have chosen to remain in Alaska
because they are lured by the state's great outdoors or the sense

78 THE REFERENCE SHELF

of adventure that comes with working and living in a land that
still throbs with pioneer spirit. A forty-two-year-old New Yorker
I met near Anchorage, where he was building his own home in a
heavily wooded area, told how he had abandoned an active
partnership in a prospering business in New York and decided
to settle in Alaska after having made a vacation trip to the
new state. "It's the spirit of the place that gets you," he said.
"Everybody's busy building something. It's exciting."

The great spirit of Alaska is infectious. It is the common
denominator of Alaskans everywhere and derives from a sense of
sharing in the challenge of building something new. It is mass
togetherness.

I shall never forget my conversation with a young former
Brooklynite, an intelligent, well-informed man who had not
completed high school. Of his eight years in Alaska, he said:

e The most wonderful thing about Alaska is that everybody
works together and helps each other. You don't feel as if you
are alone in the world. When I lived in Brooklyn, I think I was
the most selfish man alive. I wouldn't go around the corner or
lift a finger to help anyone, unless I knew it would also help me.

"I've changed up here and love it. One night I got a phone
call from a new neighbor, moved in only a few months before,
and I had hardly known him. His car had broken down, and
he wanted to know if I could come out to help him. I put my
coat on, hopped in my car and took off. It was an eight-hundred-
mile round trip!"

The former Brooklynite's sentiments are echoed by the
Reverend Richard T. Lambert, of Fairbanks, who has said: "This
is really not a get-rich-quick area, nor is it a place where one
could drift easily alone, living to oneself. One must come expect-
ing to depend upon others and helping other people in turn."

A unique example of the "Alaska spirit" was the time the
canneries of Cordova were caught short-handed by an unexpected
bonanza in the salmon run. It turned out to be the largest catch
in nearly a generation, but help was urgently needed to pack
the catch. Almost everyone in town men, housewives, children,
shopkeepers, teachers, even the local banker turned to in force,
donning oilskins and aprons to help the canneries.

Just as horsethieving in the old West was an odious sort of
crime, stealing property in Alaska is considered an abominable

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWASi 79

act of antineighborliness. A stroller down a main street in any
town is apt to pass auto after auto rilled with an assortment of
supplies and personal valuables, but not one door locked. A
wealthy Alaskan, who leaves his home for an annual business
trip to Los Angeles, and has been doing so for eighteen years,
has never locked his front door. Many Alaskans have no front-
door locks.

The Alaskan Personality

Alaskan youthfulness and spirit are without doubt the most
important "natural" resources in Alaska, motivating Alaskans to
work hard. The same spirit also generates a friendliness, a
warmth, a charm and informality that may be seen anywhere:
crossing the street, at the corner drugstore, or at a PTA meeting.
It may be seen at almost any swank cocktail lounge where men
in slacks and sweaters mingle freely with women in evening
clothes. In fact, a type of dress usually consisting of an "Eisen-
hower" jacket and slacks or whipcord trousers is called the
"Alaska tuxedo" because so many men show up dressed that way
at social events.

But it is not an affectation, a calculated attempt to be differ-
ent. It is a way of life in Alaska. The message is obvious, Alaska's
way of saying, "I am a nonconformist, a rugged individualist
at heart. I like being with people but I don't like people telling
me what I should or shouldn't like for myself."

I saw a rather vivid demonstration of this couldn't-care-less
attitude on several occasions in Anchorage. Involved was a husky
young man who sported a thick, red beard, an immense handle-
bar mustache, begrimed coveralls, and an old felt hat cut to fit
atop his head like a precarious fez. At the end of a day's labor
on his homestead, not having a car, nor time to change into
something more formal, he would drive into Anchorage aboard
his open tractor, roll casually along the modern shopping section
(Fourth Avenue) and maneuver into a parking-meter space just
as if he were coming to town in a chauffered limousine. He'd
jump from his tractor, pause to chat with friends, or go window
shopping, or stop in at a cocktail lounge, and at no time did
anybody stare at him as though he were an odd-ball.

80 THE REFERENCE SHELF

Where and How Alaskans Live

The great majority of Alaskans live comfortably in conven-
tional homes within city or town limits. As a matter of fact,
there has been an increasing demand for apartment dwellings
in Alaska's larger cities. In the urbanized centers there are
modern supermarkets, ranch homes, split-level homes, and
Cape Cods, with and without attached garages. There are movie
houses, cocktail lounges, bowling alleys, the usual shortage of
parking space, and the ubiquitous pneumatic drill, symbol of
a changing society.

In contrast, almost every urban area has its share of Alaskans
who live in comparatively crude shacks or log cabins, erected
by do-it-yourselfers making use of backyard timber. Some
"shacks" are authentic leftovers of the Klondike age, but usually
with all the comforts of modern living. Some Alaskans even
prefer the Klondike look. In one log cabin, the type seen in
travelogues on Alaska, I saw a roomful of the most luxurious
Hollywood-fashion, white leather furniture money could buy.
The owner, an Alaskan businesswoman who preferred the "es-
thetic appeal" of a log cabin, was also partial to modern furnish-
ings. But she would never trade her log cabin for a mansion.

As a rule, Alaskans are fairly gregarious. But this does not
mean they gather in throngs. Most simply enjoy informal get-
togethers with friends and just talking around coffee at the
kitchen table. (According to the American Telephone and
Telegraph files, Alaskans do more talking on the telephone
than people in any other state. Alaskans average 630 calls per
person annually, compared with 426 for the U.S. average.)

Making conversation in Alaska is easy. When strangers
meet, the usual ice-breaker is, "And where are you from?"

Alaskans go to movies, listen to radio, watch television, read a
great deal and drink! They do far more drinking than any
other group in the United States, a fact that is immediately
obvious to visitors. In most towns, there are cocktail lounges
and package liquor stores everywhere. Comedian Joe E. Brown
once quipped that Fourth Avenue in Anchorage is the "longest
bar in the world," a rather pungent description for nearly half
a mile of an almost unbroken line of cafes on both sides of
the street. . . . [But] drunkenness on the streets is rare.

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 81

All told, there are about a dozen radio stations and five tele-
vision stations in Alaska, within the range of perhaps 90 per
cent of the population. Except for local shows, which feature
such popular programs as illustrated talks on hunting and fish-
ing, nearly everything on Alaskan television is on film. Most
events of any significance may be at least a week old before
appearing on Alaskan TV screens, and sometimes the Impact
and thrills are gone because the details will have been obtained
from radio or newspapers. For example, I once asked a thirty-
eight-year-old family man who had accumulated considerable
wealth through a successful business (restaurant) after thirteen
years in Anchorage, "Since you have made so much money,
what is there that you would most like to do now? Return
to your home town, live it up?"

"No," he said unhesitatingly, "but I'd sure give a thousand
bucks to see a big league ball game."

"Don't you see baseball on TV?"

"Yes. But it's stale. The thrill's gone. I always know the
score."

Of six daily newspapers in Alaska, perhaps only the two in
Anchorage and the one in Fairbanks resemble modern journal-
ism. But even these do not place great stress on national or
international affairs, unless there are Alaska angles to the story.
Alaskans who desire to keep up with world affairs usually sub-
scribe to the weekly news magazines or the air editions of the
New York Times. Quite a few pay thirty cents for same-day
Seattle newspapers delivered by air, but an impartial observer
would have to say that the thirty cents is wasted, for the
Anchorage Daily News, and Times, and the Fairbanks News-
Miner, widely and efficiently distributed at ten cents each, are
equal if not superior to the Seattle newspapers.

Most Alaskans do not seem to be particularly sports-minded.
Except for high school teams and service teams, there is little in
the way of organized sport. But Alaskans are certainly fun-
minded and will participate actively in community festivities
and fairs.

Perhaps the most colorful event in Alaska if not in the
entire North country is the annual Fur Rendezvous, held in
February in Anchorage. The Fur Rendezvous converts Anchor-
age for several days into a carnival city, and attracts Alaskans

82 THE REFERENCE SHELF

from everywhere. It is part of a tradition that goes back to
early nineteenth century Alaska, when fur buyers met with
Indians to trade, and after trading would celebrate their deals
with firewater. During the modem Fur Rendezvous, Eskimos
come from the north to display their crafts, perform dramas,
dances, and sports; and there are dogsled races in the streets
of Anchorage, sometimes for stakes running into thousands of
dollars. Men and trucks sometimes work through the night,
carting snow from the outskirts to spread about the streets of
Anchorage in order to assure good dogsled racing! The event
even draws one contestant from as far away as Massachusetts.

There are more culturally advanced forms of entertainment
in the major cities, such as concerts and theatrical productions
which usually play to standing-room-only audiences. Some-
times the performances are by local talent and are quite ambi-
tious. Anchorage, for instance, has a large symphony orchestra
of its own, as well as a choral group numbering 100 to 120
voices, which participate in an annual June music festival. But
local community groups have been increasingly sponsoring
concerts by well-known musicians and artists invited from the
great halls of New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.

Alaskans are avid readers, and support their libraries. A
recently constructed library in Anchorage is one of the best-
equipped and most modern I have seen anywhere in the world,
and there was hardly an afternoon or evening that I did not
see the library crowded with school children and adult readers.
Typically, the library subscribes to scores of outside publications
in order to satisfy the Alaskans* hunger for news and knowledge.
Several magazines are published in Alaska. One of these, the
Alaskan Sportsman, is of exceptional quality in its fiction and
nonfiction and tends to reflect the true spirit of Alaskans.

Social Interrelations

Nowhere in Alaska is there any evidence of resentment toward
cheechakos, newcomers. A possible exception is Juneau, where
many of Alaska's oldest families have been established and the
few newcomers may feel a certain social "chill" in the air.

But as a rule cheechako is a friendly term and newcomers are
made to feel welcome. Yet Alaskans can be piqued readily by

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 83

any sudden intrusion of new ideas or talent particularly if
such intrusion tends to make some Alaskan enterprise, or insti-
tution, or personality, seem mediocre by comparison.

To a great extent this may be due to fear, or insecurity.
Many Alaskans have been successful in business, society, or poli-
tics as a result of individual tenacity and hard work and some-
times sheer courage, rather than superior talents. As a frontier
society, Alaska has attracted many whose abilities are some-
what lukewarm, because it has been relatively easy for them to
reach the top and remain there in a frontier setting, as com-
pared with a highly competitive society. Mediocrity is frequently
apparent, particularly in business. Accordingly a smart chee-
chako, no matter how skilled, ingenious or experienced, does not
impose new ideas drastically or suddenly. He learns to take
his time.

Women in Alaska

For the most part, women in Alaska lead a typically Ameri-
can family life, tending to home, children, and garden, and they
read about Dan McGrew and the "lady known as Lou" with as
much curiosity as women who have never been to Alaska.
What is perhaps most characteristic of women in the forty-ninth
state is that many work, either part-time or full-time; many
join their husbands in outdoor fun; many are quite handy with
paint brushes and tools around the house.

Doris Dooley grew so handy with tools soon after her ar-
rival in Fairbanks, about ten years ago, that she was able to
start her own business, leasing, installing and maintaining soda
dispensing machines and popcorn vendors. It is not unusual
to see Doris, a handsome blondish woman in her forties, hop
off her truck in Fairbanks, with a kit of plumbing tools on her
way to a repair or installation job. In some other state she'd
probably be a candidate for town eccentric. But in Fairbanks
she's just another Alaskan making a go of things.

Women in Alaska enjoy an unparalleled social and eco-
nomic equality with men. There are women in trades, politics,
business and law enforcement. In Anchorage, a familiar sight
is the attractive motorcycle policewoman, assigned to traffic
enforcement.

34 THE REFERENCE SHELF

Before statehood, there were many laws passed protecting
the rights and interests of Alaskan women in such matters as
minimum pay ($1.50 per hour), equal pay for equal work, and
protection of property rights in marriage and divorce. These
laws remain in force.

One aspect of life, however, that affects women in particu-
lar, especially housewives with children, is what Alaskans call
"cabin fever," supposedly a syndrome of boredom and monot-
ony arising from long periods of darkness and cold during the
winter. Cabin fever is said to be epidemic in the interior.

Many ministers and physicians (there are no private psychia-
trists in Alaska) told me that "cabin fever" is the principal
social "disease" in Alaska and that it accounts for a higher- than-
average rate of alcoholism and suicide. Another result of cabin
fever, according to many Alaskans, is the standard joke known as
"the spring breakup," indicated by a high rate of separations
and divorces after the winter.

Statistical data support the view that incidences of alcoholism
and suicide in Alaska are above average. But if the rate of
divorce in Alaska is any indication of cabin fever, the disease
is not nearly as bad as many make it out to be. The latest
divorce rate in Alaska was about 2.6 per 1,000 population, but
there was almost an identical divorce rate for the entire United
States.

However, more significant is the fact that the divorce rate
in Alaska in 1945 was much higher 3.9 per 1,000 and has
been declining steadily ever since, whereas the divorce rate in
the United States has remained practically unchanged.

These statistics, of course, are subject to varying interpreta-
tions. It is entirely possible, for example, that when a mar-
riage breaks up in Alaska one of the partners is apt to leave
the state and obtain a divorce elsewhere. But the steadily de-
clining rate of divorce in Alaska cannot be ignored in view of
Alaska's increasing population during the same period. My own
feeling is that Alaskan marriages tend to be more firmly cemented
because husband and wife share a common goal and affection
for their way of life and the new state of Alaska. One minister
put it nicely: "If a man and wife stick it out together in Alaska
for one full year, not even the Lord can tear them apart."

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AMD HAWAII 85

A rather common misconception about women in Alaska is
the oft-heard remark, even among Alaskans, that women go to
Alaska to get a man because men outnumber women seven to one.

Single women arrive in Alaska constantly, but not many.
Most come to take jobs as teachers or as government workers
in Federal Civil Service. There is no basis., however, for ac-
cepting the seven-to-one ratio. A liberal estimate would bring
it down to more manageable proportions, three to one. None-
theless, Alaska is no huge mantrap for single women. Most
young men in Alaska are already married. There is, however,
a definite ratio of three unmarried males to one unmarried
female in Anchorage and Fairbanks thanks to the unusual
preponderance of military personnel in those areas.

But do not conclude that life for unmarried females in
Alaska is dull. It is anything but that, particularly in Anchor-
age and Fairbanks. For one thing, both these cities supply ade-
quate recreational and social resources where young couples can
have fun. In both cities, there are many socials at community
and religious centers, and there are a great variety of clubs,
social, fraternal, professional, and recreational. In Anchorage
alone, there are more than 150 active social and professional
societies. In addition, the social resources in both cities are
substantially augmented by large and well-run functions at
the various military bases.

Dating and social life is extremely informal, and there is
little chance for monotony because Alaska's young folk repre-
sent not the monolithic cultural pattern of a single community,
but backgrounds as diverse as America itself. . . .

Religion in Alaska

The density of churches in Alaska is high. One community
of 1,500 supports nine churches! There are almost one hundred
churches between Anchorage and Fairbanks. Every conceivable
denomination is represented. Increasingly, the churches are
playing a vital role in the social lives of Alaskans, providing a
variety of welfare and counseling services, including a Hospi-
tality House in Fairbanks for job-seeking girls in need. Recently,
a $5 million college was started by the Methodist Church in

86 THE REFERENCE SHELF

Anchorage, and plans have been made for an almost year-by-
year expansion of the college.

But Alaskans apparently are not fervent about their religion.
A well-known religious leader in Alaska said, smilingly, "Alaska
is still a missionary country as far as religious life is concerned.
People who come here are essentially escapists, nonconformists.

"This is a weekend country. Anyone who has any kind of
camping gear and a car takes off with his family on week-
ends. I don't blame them. Fd join them if I could, and some-
times I do."

Cooperation between religious groups is excellent, although
there seems to be an undercurrent of animosity between the
major denominations and those of what some call the "fringe"
religions, of which there are many in Alaska, operating from
store-front churches. But discrimination of any sort, religious,
racial, or social, is almost nonexistent. It is definitely antisocial
to be a bigot in Alaska.

Travel in Alaska

Many arriving in Alaska for the first time are surprised to
find that Alaskans travel about with ease, even in winter. Of
the many strange notions held by outsiders regarding travel in
Alaska, none was more ludicrous than that revealed by a chee-
chako who thought that during winter, if he had to call for a
taxi in Alaska, he'd find himself hopping into a dogsled operated
by an Eskimo crying, "Mush!"

In some northern portions of Alaska and in the isolated bush
the dogsled or snowshoes are still the only means of travel in
winter. But even these are rapidly giving way to the airplane.

Alaska is the flyingest place in the world. Everybody, it
would seem, has a pilot's license housewives, ministers, doc-
tors, nurses, lawyers, Indians, Eskimos, Aleuts, salesmen, poli-
ticians, hunting and fishing enthusiasts. In fact, many sports-
men who had utilized airplanes avocationally for hunting and
fishing have become professional bush pilots.

A few days before my visit to the University of Alaska at
Fairbanks, an eighteen-year-old Indian girl landed on the campus
in her own airplane to register as a freshman for the coming
semester. She had flown, I was told, some six hundred miles
over extremely rough country.

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 87

According to Alaska Airlines, "78.7 per cent of the population
use air transportation regularly. The average Alaskan flies
twenty-eight times as much and as frequently as the citizen in
the continental United States." Indeed, it is the airplane that
is really responsible for the "opening" of Alaska's interior. In
this regard the United States Air Force played a significant role
shortly after World War II, proving that it was feasible to fly
heavy equipment into the heartland of Alaska.

There are about 130 fields and terminals for scheduled air
transport in Alaska. Added to these are almost 300 landing
strips scattered about the state. An Alaskan, if he does not fly
his own airplane, will hop aboard anything from a bush pilot's
Piper Cub to a DC-7C or jet as casually as a banker takes a
taxi to lunch on Wall Street

A LOOK AT ALASKA'S NATIVES 2

The mention of Eskimos may bring to mind a bleak and
desolate expanse of snow with a sled trail in view and an Eskimo
clinging to the back of a dogsled as he hauls home a freshly
killed seal. A visual image of this sort would not be inaccurate
even today, but it represents only a part of modern Eskimo life.
The old Eskimo way of life is gone forever, and in many respects
this is saddening. At the same time, some of the harshness
has been taken out of living in the arctic, and even the most
conservative Eskimo would not want to return to the days be-
fore Europeans and Americans arrived in his country. The
whites brought new objects and ideas to the Eskimo, and these
have often been accepted. At the same time came new and
unprecedented problems.

Eskimos are still the most widely dispersed aboriginal people
in the Americas. They are spread from Greenland to Alaska
and even overlap into the Soviet arctic; the total Eskimo popula-
tion is now in the neighborhood of 55,000 individuals. Most
Eskimos, wherever they are found, have been drawn into a fur
trapping and trading economy, but they usually rely upon wild
animals and fish as their main source of food. The seal is still

* From "The New Alaskan Eskimo," by Wendell H. Oswalt, Department of Anthro-
pology and Sociology, University of California at Los Angeles. Amfricas. 13:10-13.
S. '61. Reprinted from Americas, monthly magazine published by the Pan American
Union in English, Spanish, and Portuguese,

88 THE REFERENCE SHELF

the most important single food animal for most Eskimos, al-
though in some regions salmon, walrus or whales may be locally
significant Eskimos everywhere are primarily village dwellers
living in small isolated settlements of less than three hundred
individuals. There is some tendency to form community politi-
cal organizations, but most daily activities center about a man,
his wife and children as the most important economic and social
unit The Eskimo is truly a family man in the broadest sense
of the word.

At present more Eskimos occupy the tundras facing the
Bering Sea in Alaska than any other region of comparable size
In the Far North. The six thousand people living there sub-
sist primarily upon salmon and seal. They know better than
anyone else the ways in which to set gill nets in order to catch
salmon as these fish migrate up the rivers to spawn. Likewise
they know the ways of the seal so very well that to hunt them
poses no unusual problems. However, these people have come
to want more than just food, clothing, and shelter. They have
become accustomed to rifles, ready-made clothing, outboard
motors, and foods not available in their territory. Their basic
problem is how to obtain these and other desired items offered
by the outside world and at the same time not lose their identity
as Eskimos, for they are justifiably proud of their cultural
heritage.

In order to obtain manufactured goods and U.S. foods these
people do many things, the most important of which is trapping.
Fortunately for them this is one of the best areas of the world
in which to obtain wild mink, and so virtually every man traps
for these fine pelts. They also trap muskrats, land otters, and
fox in order to exchange the skins for goods at the trading posts.
In addition, many of the men work during the summer at the
large salmon canneries along the southern sector of the Bering
Sea coast so that they may obtain cash. Some men likewise
work for wages unloading supply ships. All of these things the
Eskimos do well, and they quickly learn to operate new devices
such as outboard motors or machinery, but they still have many
problems in adjusting to the way of life introduced by the white
man, A look at the Eskimos' history will help us understand
their present situation.

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AHD HAWAII 89

The first contacts the Alaskan Eskimos had with Europeans
were not until early in the nineteenth century. It was dining
this era that the Russians, who were well-established in southern
Alaska, began to explore the coastal regions of the Bering Sea
in an effort to find new sources of fur. The Russian explorers
and traders were reasonably well entrenched among the Bering
Sea Eskimos by the 1850's. They obtained so many of the de-
sired furs that their most northern posts were quite successful.
Just prior to the purchase of Alaska by the United States in 1867
the less lucrative trading establishments were abandoned. It is
noteworthy that the Russians did not attempt to send settlers
into this area, nor did they ever really have a strong hold over
the Eskimos. Although the Eskimos traded with the Russians and
some Eskimo women married Russian men, most of these out-
siders lived in the region only briefly if at all. The most im-
portant and enduring Russian introduction was Christianity.
Some of the Eskimos were baptized and became members of
the Russian Orthodox Church, and there continue to be many
practicing Russian Orthodox to this day.

After the purchase of Alaska the people continued to trap,
but now they exchanged their pelts for goods at posts main-
tained by companies trading out of San Francisco. The United
States was largely disinterested in these people, and the num-
ber of outsiders coming into the country was few until near the
turn of the nineteenth century. It was then that two important
changes took place. First of all Protestant and Roman Catholic
missionaries became active locally, and they have continued
their efforts down to the present time. The second change was
more transient and came as a result of the discovery of gold in
large quantities in northwestern Canada and interior Alaska.
The gold strikes brought adventurers from all corners of the
world into traditionally Eskimo country. Fortunately or un-
fortunately the Bering Sea coast of Alaska has no gold-bearing
deposits, and so the prospectors soon left the Eskimos to them-
selves once again.

The Government of the United States did not begin to take
an active interest in the people of this area until about the
second decade of the twentieth century, and then their concern
was still quite casual. The Federal Government opened a small
hospital and began to establish schools, but most schools con-

90 THE REFERENCE SHELF

tinued to be operated by Protestant and Roman Catholic mis-
sionaries. Actually it was not until just before World War II
that the United States began to take serious notice of these
Eskimos. The Government then established many schools, opened
a modern hospital, and built some large airports that greatly
facilitated travel into the region. The increased governmental
activity has brought many changes, but still the tenor of life
has been largely unaffected.

The typical Eskimo village of today is isolated from adjoin-
ing settlements and occupied by about 120 persons including a
teacher or two, a trader, and perhaps a resident missionary.
The villages, located along the coast or adjacent rivers, are a
blend of the old Eskimo way of life with the new way of life
that has resulted from U.S. influence, but it is the new way
that is initially the more apparent A typical community has a
large wooden school building with attached quarters for the
teachers. The school is the best-maintained building in the vil-
lage, and it is here that school children, like their counterparts
over much of the world, study for about eight months of each
year. In the community there would also be a store with a
resident trader, who might be a white or an Eskimo. Most
trading establishments are well supplied with an assortment of
hardware and foodstuffs, along with some clothing. Another
imposing structure is the church, which is most likely Roman
Catholic, Russian Orthodox, or Moravian. Villagers take con-
siderable pride in their church, and it is maintained as well as
their means permit. The only other large building is likely to
be a new armory for the local unit of the National Guard,
which maintains Eskimo contingents in some settlements. The
armory may be used for community affairs, but more often for
military drills and exercises.

In this treeless region many families live in dwellings made
from logs that have drifted down the rivers to the sea from
the forested areas of interior Alaska. Other families, living
where even driftwood is scarce, build their houses primarily of
sod. However, there is an increasing tendency for all the people
to construct their homes of lumber, which they purchase from
the Government or from a local trader. Most homes are single-
room dwellings in which there is a wood-burning stove, a table,
chairs, beds, and a cupboard, in addition to various storage con-

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AMD HAWAII fl

tainers. Throughout the settlement are other structures, such as
fish-drying racks, buildings for smoking fish, and food caches.
The inevitable crowds of dogs are chained to stakes scattered
about the edges of the settlement

A village of this type certainly gives the impression of tran-
quillity, except perhaps for the occasional snarls of feuding dogs.
The people, when first met, seem reluctant to say very much,
not from animosity but because they are genuinely shy and re-
tiring among strangers. Once the awkwardness of initial intro-
ductions has been overcome, the visitor finds the Eskimos to be
gracious hosts and good friends. Eskimos justifiably have the
reputation of being very jovial, but at the same time they are
far from idle and carefree. It is essential for them to work
hard during most of the year if they are to support themselves.
In the summer they are busy fishing, while hunting seals may
take place at almost any season. From late fall to late spring
they trap. Their year is filled with diverse activities with little
time for boredom. Midwinter is the longest period of forced in-
activity, but even then the people usually are busy chopping
wood for their stoves and repairing equipment that will serve
them during the coming spring.

When a visitor has reached a point of real familiarity with
the village and its people he soon comes to realize that all is not
quite so idyllic as it might appear. There are problems, big and
small, that lend uncertainty to arctic life.

For example, hunting migratory waterfowl is no longer as
unrestricted as it formerly was. The flat, alluvial tundra region
is an important breeding center for ducks, swans, and geese.
These birds migrate north in the spring, nest on the tundra,
and then return to the south in the fall. For generations the
Eskimos have hunted these birds in the spring and, in addition,
have killed large numbers of the young throughout the summer.
However, for many years treaties between the United States,
Canada, and Mexico have restricted all parties, including
Alaskans to a fall hunting season for waterfowl. Thus, the
Eskimos are legally deprived of a source of fresh food during a
season when they need it very much. Occasionally Government
enforcement agents fly into the region and arrest Eskimos for
hunting the birds out of season.

The Eskimos regard this as totally unfair and point out that
they have always hunted these birds in the spring and summer.

THE REFERENCE SHELF

The conservationists on the other hand argue that such hunt-
ing practices very seriously deplete the breeding stock. It is ap-
parent that neither the Eskimo nor the interested public want
to see these birds . exterminated, but the vital and perplexing ques-
tion is how the differences can be reconciled. To begin with,
the whites have never learned the Eskimos' beliefs about the
birds. If they had they would know that the Eskimos think that
waterfowl breed in the north in the summer and again in the
south in the winter. For this reason, they feel that the birds
will always be abundant. The fact that this idea is not correct
can become apparent to the Eskimos only after a widespread
program of education has been successfully carried out. At the
same time the Government, if it must prohibit the Eskimos
from hunting birds out of season, should feel morally obligated
to help the Eskimos make up for the loss. This could be ac-
complished by introducing scientific fur management practices
so that the people could realize a greater and richer catch of
fur animals. Then, although one source of food would be taken
away, another would be substituted through the added income
with which to purchase meat.

In order to improve their living standard the Eskimos have
become more intensive trappers, and at the same time they are
becoming concentrated in larger communities. Not many years
ago two or three related families often lived in isolated camps
throughout the year, but with the erection of United States
Bureau of Indian Affairs schools in the larger settlements more
and more families have gravitated toward these villages. The
result has been for each man to trap over a smaller area, with
a resulting decrease in catch per trapper. Most families cannot
move to winter trapping camps now because they have school-
age children who must attend school from September through
May. The winter trapping pattern now prevalent is for the men
to go out in the fall to their trapping camps and return peri-
odically to their village.

This routine is very unsatisfactory for all concerned. The
women do not like to be left alone for extended periods of time.
The men complain of missing their families and of performing
women's work in camp, which takes them away from their
trapping. Perhaps more serious is the fact that the boys can-
not trap until they are out of school, and this deprives the family

THE NSW STATES: ALASKA AMD HAWAII 93

of needed income for several years. To solve this problem the
Bureau of Indian Affairs might divide the school year into two
parts so that the families could go as units to their winter trap-
ping camps. Some of the Bureau of Indian Affairs schools have
successfully adjusted the school year to accommodate spring
muskrat trapping, but in terms of dollars the muskrat catch is
insignificant compared to the mink catch. It would be far better
for all concerned to make every effort to improve the mink
catch. Considering the general complaint of the whites that the
Eskimos are increasingly dependent upon welfare funds, it seems
only logical to take a positive step in helping the Eskimos, who
want to do more trapping, through a more flexible governmental
policy in the schools.

The problems mentioned above are only two among many
that confront Eskimos and administrators alike. These are not
insurmountable difficulties if both sides are willing to consider
seriously the desires and needs of the other. The same would
apply to other problems such as village health, village govern-
ment, and resource utilization in general. The primary barrier
seems to be that the Government agents are comparatively in-
flexible in carrying out their obligations and are guided by policy
statements that often show little awareness of village needs. The
Eskimos, for their part, tend more and more to distrust admin-
istrators and to be prejudiced against new programs before really
understanding their aims. The conflicts that do exist are not
explosive, but they are quite symptomatic of an unhealthy
environment. Unquestionably various programs of education can
offer partial solutions, but it is both the Eskimos and the admin-
istrators who must be reeducated. They must both come to
realize that they are viewing different sides of common problems
wherein mutual understanding is necessary to arrive at accom-
plishments fruitful for both.

PROBLEMS FACING ALASKA'S NATIVES 3

In spite of some good policies, and because of some bad ones,
we still have an "Indian problem." And actions of the past
century on the old frontier, that we regret, are taking place

8 From "Indian Rights and Wrongs in Alaska," by Theodore B. Hetzel, associate
professor of engineering, Haverford College, and a director of the Indian Rights Associ-
ation. Indian Truth, 38:1-8. O. '61. Reprinted by permission.

94 THE REFERENCE SHELF

now on our last frontier, Alaska, in this time of the New Fron-
tier. We must learn better how to deal with people of cultures
that differ from ours for the improvement of our relations both
within our own borders and with our world neighbors. . . .

Who Really Owns Alaska?

By the treaty of cession in 1867 Russia sold to the United
States not just the sovereignty over Alaska, but the title to the
land itself. The legal definition of the Federal Government 5 s
title to the land is set forth in the Supreme Court's decision in
the Tee Hit Ton case which holds that the natives have no firm
title to land except as granted by Congress.

The treaty of cession provided that the members of the*
civilized native tribes should be protected in the free enjoyment
of their property.

The Act of 1884 establishing a civil government in Alaska
provided:

That the Indians or other persons in said district shall not be disturbed
in the possession of any lands actually in their use or occupation or now
claimed by them, but the terms under which such persons may acquire
title to such lands is reserved for future legislation by Congress. . . .

Some protection for the land claims of Alaskan natives was
written into the Statehood Act but even now, nearly a century
after purchasing Alaska, Congress has not acted to establish
land titles for natives on the basis of their possessory rights.

To the casual observer and even to most of the natives there
appears to be more than enough land for the present population,
so that the natives give little thought to the subject.

This apparent abundance of land is far from a true picture of
the actual situation. Demands for land by the Atomic Energy
Commission, the various branches of the Department of De-
fense, homesteaders, oil and gas producers, mining interests and
the state itself, are already causing the loss to natives of land
areas to which they are entitled and which are essential to
their economic well-being. This situation grows daily less favor-
able to the natives. Early action by Congress to reverse this
direction is essential.

Because of the provision in the Statehood Act for the new
state to select over 100 million acres of land to help meet its

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 95

expenses of operation, the state automatically becomes an ag-
gressive competitor to deprive the natives of land which they
need and which is rightfully theirs. They cannot look to the
state to protect their land rights.

Ever since early territorial days the Indian population of
Alaska has been persuaded that any landholding as reservations
or by a^group for a community enterprise would prevent them
from enjoying equality, nondiscrimination and full citizenship
rights. This has been continued by promoters of the state. Com-
bined with the failure of Congress to provide for the settle-
ment of their land claims this has resulted in most natives be-
coming economically on a level with the poorest, propertyless
cheechako (name applied to newcomers) .

Native villages are protected against seizure, but in villages
that have been surveyed it is possible for a competent native
to obtain unrestricted title to his land and to sell it regardless
of the effect upon the economy of the native community. A
special provision permits a native to obtain title to five acres in
one piece. Five acres of tundra is even more pitiful than 160
acres of the Great Plains. It cannot support its owner who has
always used extensive areas in different places at different times
of year for fishing, trapping and hunting different animals. Many
of these traditional hunting areas have been taken from the
natives' control by the numerous reservations of the Defense
Department, the AEC, Wild Life Refuges, the state, mining, gas
and oil producers, etc.

Even those natives of southeastern Alaska, who live princi-
pally by fishing, need the security of landownership to protect
their bases of operations, and their right to hunt where their
ancestors hunted. As a Tlingit Indian in Hoonah told me <e We
used to get fish in the creeks, but now we have to pay for a
permit even to get one fish. We used to go to Glacier Bay for
seals you need seal oil when you eat dried fishbut we are
not allowed to go there now."

Those Indians of the interior of Alaska whose livelihood, both
subsistence and cash income, has always depended upon hunting
and trapping should have set aside for their exclusive use the
areas of land that have always been their fields of operation.
They have over many years developed practices and methods in
taking game that both meet their needs and provide for the

96 THE REFERENCE SHELF

conservation of the game. New roads and the airplane make it
possible for sportsmen and outside trappers and hunters to move
in, take the game and destroy this source of native food.

Shades of the buffalo! As one native said, "Whites have
taken over good trapping land where we used to trap. They tell
us to keep off." . . .

In the far north large areas of grazing land are needed for
the reindeer and caribou, important sources of food and clothing
for the Eskimo.

It is equally important that these long-time native residents
of Alaska share in the income from the gas, oil and mineral
lands that are being developed. As has been the practice in other
states, the natives should have the landowner's share of income
from these products from areas which traditionally have been in
their possession.

At Barrow where natural gas is produced and piped right
through the village to supply the Federal installations arrange-
ments should be made so that the natives can secure natural
gas for their needs. As it is now they must pay from seventy
cents to a dollar a gallon for their fuel.

Schools and Schooling

There is general agreement that education is desirable, and
that it is a key to the solution of other problems that beset
Alaskan natives. New schools are being built in many places,
more teachers employed, teacher qualifications are being raised,
and burdens of extraneous duties, such as power plant and
radio operator, postmaster, magistrate, hotel-keeper, etc. formerly
placed upon teachers are being lightened. All this is good.

Native children, mostly from non-English-speaking homes
and isolated communities, do not accomplish as much academic-
ally in eight years, in spite of high intelligence, as is expected in
the "Lower 48." Their expectations and needs are different too.
Yet the academic program is based on typical American stand-
ards. In the beginning years the pupils make normal progress,
but when class material becomes based on an acquaintance with
the greater complexities of modern affairs the children drop be-
hind their nonnative contemporaries. And they drop out.

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 97

The Bureau of Indian Affairs conducted a valuable experi-
ment this past summer to prepare above- average eighth grade
graduates for successful high school careers. Perhaps even more
needed is a similar program for those of only average ability,
or a whole year added to the high school program to bring
achievement up to regular norms and to prepare students
better for college.

School program and policy are determined in Washington
and Juneau. The reasons for them are often not understood
either by the students or their parents, and some things which
are of importance to the natives are not accepted by the educa-
tion administrators. Many natives depend on boats and outboard
motors. But there is no instruction in boatmaking or out-
board repair, except for some shop work at Mt Edgecumbe,
which work is being decreased. There is talk of a vocational
high school at Nome. A good idea, but the wrong place.

It is not surprising that boys drop out of school when they do
not realize the importance of their studies, and their studies
do not include some things they think important. And their
parents are not consulted about curriculum. The Bureau should
establish local advisory school boards and give them increasing
responsibility for decisions affecting their children's education.
Most natives would not be able to assume all the responsibili-
ties of school boards at once, but they should be brought into
school activities through parent-teacher organizations and into
administrative problems wherever possible. We do not approve
of the former practice of "kidnapping" Indian children to edu-
cate them. We should be sure that we do not now have other
practices opposed by the parents.

Hunger Knows No Season

An Alaskan problem that received national attention this past
summer is that of the taking of migratory birds which are
protected by international treaties. The needs and usages of
Eskimos in killing ducks and some other birds when they were
in Alaska were probably unknown or overlooked by those who
wrote the treaties. The treaties should be revised for the benefit
of those who depend on these birds for subsistence, for there is

98 THE REFERENCE SHELF

no question but that many Eskimos need this food, and also that
the number of birds taken by them is no significant threat to
the conservation of the species. It would be simpler, however, to
solve the problem by a more understanding enforcement of the
regulations. The treaty with Mexico protects those ducks which
live temporarily in Mexico, therefore as no eider ducks get that
far south they need not be included in those listed for protection.
The treaty with Canada states "that special protection shall be
given . . . the eider duck ... by such other regulations as may
be deemed appropriate." When the eider were threatened with
extinction that meant more strict protection of course, but now
that that is not the case the propriety of appropriate regulation
is established.

Natives Endangered by "Project Chariot"

Another problem for the Eskimos is the Atomic Energy Com-
mission's Project Chariot, a proposal to experiment with the use
of atomic energy to blast a huge excavation. Scientists have been
studying the geology, flora, fauna and weather of the area. The
natives of the vicinity have been told that there will be no ill
effects due to radiation and fallout. However, if one could be so
sure of the results it would not be necessary to conduct the
experiment, and the assurances are suspect because some findings
and recommendations have been published in advance of the
gathering of scientific data basic to the recommendations.
Political rather than scientific factors seem to be in control of
Project Chariot

Many problems illustrate the confusion of information and
misinformation in people's minds: the problems accompanying
transition from a hunting to a cash economy, how to get better
housing, the effect of airplanes on wildlife, the effect of weirs
on salmon spawning, legal problems relating to fish traps and
fishing and hunting rights, and the social effects of large military
bases adjacent to small native villages.

Relatively well-informed people hold conflicting opinions and
are sure of contradictory data. This lack of reliable information
is a clear indication that Indian-interest organizations should
give more attention to Alaska, its people and their problems.

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII ff

RACE RELATIONS FRONTIERS IN HAWAII*

By virtue of its limited size and geographic insularity, Hawaii
lends itself peculiarly to a unitary and simplified representation
of its social structure. Both the popular and scientific literature
abound with references to Hawaii as "the melting pot of the
Pacific" a land where the associations among the numerous
ethnic stocks which make up its population are described in
terms as idyllic and equable as the climate and the tropical
landscape. Indeed, some observers with a scientific tradition have
seriously contended that the contentious peoples of more rigorous
climes may become transformed into mild-mannered Polynesians
simply by living for some years within the beneficent physical
environment of the Islands.

Most social scientists, while critical of so simple a theory of
social causation, are nevertheless prone to accept the conception
of Hawaii as affording a congenial social climate for free and
friendly association among peoples of sharply contrasted cultures
and racial origins. A prevailing impression of Hawaii, par-
ticularly among journalists but also among social scientists, has
varied only slightly from the account given by William Allen
White, following his experience in the Islands during the initial
conference of the Institute of Pacific Relations. Writing under
the title "The Last of the Magic Isles," White described Hawaii
as the one place in all the world where "the so-called race
problem is [not] acute," where the eyes of the dark-skinned men
of the "brown, black, and the yellow [races] of the earth and
their mulattoes are [not] looking with suspicion and rage and
bitterness into the blue eyes of the men of the northern ruling
race of today," where "race antipathies have disappeared because
. . . race injustices are not in vogue."

Few of the numerous observers of the social scene in Hawaii
go much further than the Kansas journalist in interpreting the
beneficent race relations as the consequence of the favorable
economic situation in which competition is lacking between the
"benevolent white oligarchy" and the imported "races from Asia
who live upon the lower standard." Thirty years later no less

4 From article by Andrew W. Lind, senior professor of sociology, University of
Hawaii In Race Relations: Problems and Theory, Essays in Honor or Robert E. Park,
edited by Titsuichi Masuoka and Preston Valien. University of North Carolina Press.
Chapel Hill. '61. p 58-71. Reprinted by permission.

100 THE REFERENCE SHELF

a figure than the President of the United States [Dwight D.
Elsenhower] utilized much the same idealized conception of the
Islands as a major argument in his State of the Union Address
for urging statehood for Hawaii:

In the Hawaiian Islands, East meets West. To the Islands, Asia
and Europe and the Western Hemisphere, all the continents, have
contributed their peoples and their cultures to display a unique example
of a community that is a successful laboratory in human brotherhood.

Statehood, supported by the repeatedly expressed desire of the
Islands' people and by our traditions, would be a shining example of
the American way to the entire earth.

Even the scholarly and intensive studies by Romanzo Adams,
pioneer sociologist in the Islands, have been commonly inter-
preted as supporting a similarly enchanting view of race relations
in which there is "the almost complete absence of race prejudice
and sustained social tolerance and cultural reciprocity." Actually,
Adams' analysis of Hawaiian race relations does not lend itself
to such a simplified conception. He did not fail to recognize the
existence, particularly among the newly arrived immigrants and
in the military circles, of strong traditions adverse to free asso-
ciation and equality of opportunity across racial lines, but he did
insist that, owing to a series of historical accidents in Hawaii,
there has evolved a prevailing set of practices (rituals) and a
corresponding set of doctrines to symbolize racial equality. . . .

According to Adams, it was the deep rooting of racial equality
in the everyday practices of the people, reinforced by a long
tradition and a corresponding doctrine . . . that such conduct
is right and proper which gives to Hawaii its unique and un-
orthodox quality as a race relations frontier. Individuals or even
small splinter groups may be out of sympathy with the racial
code and may even privately resist it, but they cannot afford to
express these sentiments openly, and eventually even their inner
sentiments, according to Adams, come to conform with the social
expectations.

Other competent students have focused attention specifically
upon the dual or divided character of Island race relations, being
less impressed by the dominant code of racial equality than by
the equally pronounced tendency to depart from the code.
Everett Stonequist, following two years of observation in Hawaii,
characterized the Island system of race relations as containing "a

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 101

pattern of equality and friendliness and a pattern of inequality
and prejudice." Evidence of the latter, according to Stonequist,
is found particularly in the racial hierarchy on Hawaii's planta-
tions, in the economic and cultural dominance and the social
exclusiveness of the white population, and in the ethnocentrism
of the various immigrant groups.

This point of view, which has been shared by numerous other
observers, suggests a shirting and unstable equilibrium in which
the nonwhite groups especially are subject to varying degrees of
racial segregation and prejudice. Indeed, it gives to Hawaii's
race relations a character not essentially different from that
which is commonly attributed to the continental United States.
There is a professed code of racial equality on the one hand a
public avowal that the individual shall be afforded opportunity
and rewarded on the basis of his native ability and effort rather
than on the accident of birth. The actual practice, on the other
hand, may fall far short of the ideal. Hawaii's race relations,
they contend, are essentially those of the "American dilemma"
described by Gunnar Myrdal the continuing conflict between
the values inherent in the "American creed" where the American
thinks, talks, and acts under the influence of high national and
Christian precepts, and, on the other hand, the valuations of
specific planes of individual and group living, where personal
and local interests; economic, social, and sexual jealousies; . . .
group prejudice . . . dominate his outlook.

A psychologist from South Africa, after several weeks of
observation in Hawaii and prodded, no doubt, by the frequent
references to "Hawaii's racial harmony," went so far as to state
to a group of fellow scientists that "the only real difference
between race relations in South Africa and in Hawaii is that in
South Africa we practice racial segregation and inequality and
readily admit it whereas in Hawaii you also discriminate but
your code won't permit you to admit it." There is much the same
implication of unconscious hypocrisy among Islanders in the
widely quoted comment of Ray Stannard Baker in 1911: "I have
rarely visited any place where there was as much charity and
as little democracy as in Hawaii." Although he was alluding at
the time primarily to the benevolent paternalism which he found
so marked in the Islands, he was no less impressed by the
barriers existing to "keep the Oriental in his place."

102 THE REFERENCE SHELF

Robert E. Park [whose pioneer work as a sociologist advanced
the study of race relations] appears to have been the first to
suggest a pluralistic approach to the study of race ^ relations in
Hawaii. In his introduction to Romanzo Adams' Interracial
Marriage in Hawaii, Park restates a conception which had
occurred to him at least a decade earlier following some observa-
tions in the Caribbean, where he was greatly impressed by the
wide variation in the race relations found in the different islands.
The possibility of similar differences among various Hawaiian
islands with respect to race relations was proposed to Adams as
a basic idea for the study and appears in the introduction as
follows:

If ... we may observe civilization [here] as it evolves under some-
thing like laboratory conditions, this is due, in part at least, to the
advantages of the islands for the purpose of sociological investigation. . . .
All kinds of things can and do happen on islands. . . . Every island
(of the group) is likely to enclose within the limits of its coastline not
merely another community but a different world, each with its own
local traditions and way of life, and each more or less self-sufficing and
complete in itself. . . . Insularity, in short, encourages individuality and
in this sense, it is true that one cannot tell what will happen on an
island*

Hawaii's small islands, with their restricted and "neighborly"
populations, yield better returns for the students of race relations,
according to Park, because there is "little of that mystery and
sentiment in regard to race which so readily springs up in more
populous communities where local and occupational segregation
so easily becomes the basis for the formation of hereditary
classes or castes." . . .

Traders and Missionaries

It is against the background of Hawaii's underlying economy
that the evolving pattern of Island race relations may be most
effectively portrayed. Trade was, in fact, the atmosphere in
which contacts between the native Polynesians and the whites
were initiated, and the subsequent shifts in the racial complexion
of the region have been largely in response to the changing
demands of the Island economy. One need not accept the theory
of economic determinism to recognize in Hawaii, as elsewhere,

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AHD HAWAII 103

the dynamic influence of free land and of open economic oppor-
tunity in stimulating immigration and the mingling of diverse
peoples. It is within the shadow, so to speak, of two competing
economic institutions the trading center and the plantation
that Hawaii's pattern of race relations has chiefly taken form.

Trade is a ... relationship in which, theoretically at least,
both participants enjoy equal advantage. The very conception of
exchange implies that both parties find the relationship to then-
advantage and that either party may withdraw and thus term-
inate the relationship if he feels that his best interests are not
being served. . . .

Certainly the Yankee trader who soon followed the explorer,
drove hard bargains with the natives and gave little thought for
their welfare. That the Hawaiian was frequently victimized in
these transactions there can be little doubt; but it was a game
which required two to play, and its success was dependent upon
the satisfaction of both of the parties. Moreover, the purely
exploitative aspects of the relationship could not continue if the
Westerners expected to conduct business and to live permanently
in the Islands. The natives were not likely to continue doing
business with a trader who was known to be a scoundrel. . . .

The Christian missionaries have frequently been credited with
introducing the tradition of equality into the race relations of
Hawaii, and unquestionably they did much to stabilize this trend
and to give it doctrinal support. What is perhaps not commonly
recognized is that the missionaries came to Hawaii in the wake
of and, to some degree, by the consent of the traders. Despite the
acrimonious struggle for power between some of the traders and
the missionaries, they actually had much in common and each
drew support from the other. The missionaries, like the traders,
were beholden to the native rulers for their presence and physical
well-being in the Islands, and it would have been inconsistent
with both their collective interests and their professed doctrine to
discriminate actively against the natives. . . .

It is the combined impact of the forces emanating from the
trading center on the one hand and the Protestant mission on
the other which is largely responsible for Hawaii's much-vaunted
equalitarian race relations. The trader, with his dominant con-
cern for profit, and the missionary, with his zeal for winning
souls, were by their vocations compelled to treat the native

104 THE REFERENCE SHELF

Hawaiians with deference and respect. They could not afford to
give public expression in the Islands to any feelings which they
might privately cherish that the Hawaiians were destined by
their biological heritage to remain at their stone-age level of
culture. And, as Romanzo Adams has insisted, people tend to
bring their attitudes into harmony with the behavior that they
believe to be expedient. In the field of race relations, people
finally come to have the sentiments of respect that their conduct
symbolizes. It is therefore a matter of primary importance to
the permanent pattern of race relations in Hawaii that the trader
and the missionary arrived before (not after) the planter and the
soldier. The lapse of some seventy years following Western
discovery of Hawaii before the plantation emerged as a dominant
Factor in the life of the Islands allowed ample time for the
earlier equalitarian pattern of race relations to become firmly
established, and at least another fifty years elapsed before any
considerable military population arrived to offer further
competition.

Planters and Soldiers

The combined effect of certain major social changes in Hawaii
before 1850 the dramatic decline in native population from an
estimated 300,000 in 1778 to 71,000 in 1853, the consequent
releasing of extensive native lands for other purposes, the ac-
ceptance by the Hawaiian monarchy of the rights of private
ownership and the alienation of land, and the passing of Hawaii
as a major center for the whaling industry of the Pacific these
all served to create the necessary conditions for the rise of the
plantation frontier in the Islands. The critical significance of the
plantation as affecting race relations arises out of its political
functions and role. In order to assure the necessary supply of
responsible and tractable labor, in a region where such workers
are distinctly at a premium, the planter is compelled to assume
the part of a political overlord, and the plantation acquires many
of the characteristics of a semi-independent state.

In Hawaii, as on other plantation frontiers, the natives had
little incentive to accept the onerous conditions of labor on the
emerging agricultural estates. Their simple economic needs could
readily be satisfied without submitting to the long arduous hours
of work under a foreign taskmaster. Since slavery, the device so

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 105

commonly utilized In other plantation regions, could not be
employed, the planters were obliged to import the bulk of their
workers from overseas and to hold their labor supply as best
they could by a highly stratified social system based upon race.
Commencing in 1852 and continuing for nearly a hundred years,
the European and American promoters of Hawaii's sugar and
pineapple plantations recruited some 400,000 workers from such
widely separated regions as China, Korea, Japan, the Philippines,
Spain, Portugal, Germany, Norway, Puerto Rico, and the islands
of the south and central Pacific. Although the total demand for
plantation workers in Hawaii could readily have been supplied
entirely from a single region relatively close at hand, such as
China, better control, particularly during the early history of
the plantation, could be obtained by dividing the labor force
among sharply contrasted ethnic stocks and by maintaining
distinct physical and social barriers between them.

Thus it is that most of the groups known as races in Hawaii
have been drawn to these Islands to supply plantation labor, and
the very conception of race as a divisive category is largely a
function of the plantation system. Before the middle of the last
century the only major distinctions were between the natives and
the haole, with minor recognition of the national groupings
within the larger category of foreigners. Chinese plantation
workers, following their arrival in considerable numbers during
the 1850's and 1860's, came to stand out as a special group with
a status inferior to that of the haole group with whom they had
previously been classified, and beginning in 1866 the Chinese
were recognized as a separate racial group in the census of
Hawaii. Similarly, the Portuguese, Spanish, German, and Nor-
wegian immigrant laborers, although sharing a common European
and Christian heritage with the American and British planters of
the Islands, have consistently been treated as distinct racial groups
and have so been classified in the official census as long as their
place within the Island economy was primarily at the level of
plantation labor. . . .

With the economic maturation of plantation agriculture,
following World War I, there occurred a reversal in the con-
ditions of the Hawaiian labor market such that unskilled workers,
far from being in great demand, are now excessively available.
The planter no longer needs to conserve or coerce his workers,

106 THE REFERENCE SHELF

since the supply is more than ample, and the pressure to use
race as a control device is consequently largely removed. The
traditions of the past, however, die hard, and the plantation still
remains a symbol of racial, as well as class stratification. . . .

The loss of Hawaiian political independence and the ac-
ceptance of territorial status under the United States [in 1898],
although by no means attributable exclusively to plantation
pressures, symbolized to the masses a further intrenchment of the
plantation pattern of race relations. To the native Hawaiians,
particularly, annexation reflected a serious loss of prestige, and
it was generally interpreted as a public confirmation of the
dominant position of the haole, a fact which had hitherto been
publicly recognized only within the plantation.

Actually the transfer of citizenship from the Hawaiian Re-
public to the United States had mixed consequences with respect
to race relations in the Islands. On the one hand, the earlier
property qualifications for certain elective offices and the exclu-
sion of Orientals from citizenship under the constitution of the
Republic were eliminated. The American Bill of Rights was
extended to all residents of the territory regardless of racial
ancestry. All persons born within the Islands were for the first
time granted the rights of citizenship. On the other hand,
disparities between legal rights and practices also became in-
creasingly apparent as a considerable number of Americans from
the mainland, bearing racial attitudes which were alien to
Hawaii, flocked into the newly acquired territory. It is sig-
nificant, however, that most of these malihinis (newcomers)
either absorbed "the unorthodox race doctrines" of Hawaii, par-
ticularly if they lived in the urban centers, or they returned to
the States. A sizable number of mainlanders could not become
accustomed to the racial practices which they encountered, and
it is probable that their decision to return to the States was
motivated in part by a feeling of disgust with Hawaii's racial
unorthodoxy.

A new dimension in Hawaiian race relations was introduced
shortly after annexation with the arrival of increasing numbers
of military personnel. The soldier, whose exercise of power figures
so prominently in establishing the superior position of the white
man on so many other colonial frontiers, did not seriously figure
in the Hawaiian situation until well after a century of contact

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 107

with the Western world. The first permanent garrison of Amer-
ican troops was established on Oahu shortly after the transfer
of sovereignty in August 1898, but it was not until after World
War I that Hawaii emerged as the major American military
outpost in the Pacific. Hawaii's rapid rise as a military frontier
is symbolized in the expanding number of persons returned by
the census as "soldiers, sailors, and marines/' or in "national
defense," from 1,608 in 1910 to 29,057 in 1940, of whom the
overwhelming majority were mainlanders. The climax was
reached after "Pearl Harbor" when the military personnel com-
pletely outnumbered the adult civilian population of the Islands.

The significance of the military population, which Romanzo
Adams in the early thirties apparently regarded as the most
serious threat to "Hawaii's race mores," is derived, however, less
from the numbers involved than from their isolation and political
influence. Like the plantations, the military posts had very much
the character of independent states where "traditions of a racial
caste system" could be maintained without interference from the
local community. The distinctions of rank, inherent in the
military structure, could readily be translated into a racial
hierarchy, particularly when those in command had been dis-
proportionately drawn from "sections of the country in which
doctrines of racial inequality are definitely professed and
practiced." . . .

The conflict in viewpoint with regard to race relations be-
tween the military and civilian elements of the Island population
might not have constituted any serious problem, if the isolation
between them had been less complete. To a very considerable
degree, the military population has lived in a world of its own,
with a minimum of communication with, or understanding of
life among, the civilians. Limitations of recreational opportu-
nities on the posts, however, have forced the large number of
womanless enlisted men, particularly, to seek contacts with the
civilian community under conditions which have not been favor-
able to understanding on either side. . . .

Under the pressure of national crises and also in response to
the mounting economic expenditures of the military establish-
ments in Hawaii, Islanders have sometimes compromised with
their local code of racial equality. This was perhaps most notice-
able during World War II with respect to the treatment of the

108 THE REFERENCE SHELF

Negro, the latest and least familiar, and, hence, the least ac-
ceptable, of the immigrant arrivals. Even within the urban
centers, the Negro has encountered some discrimination during
and following the war, although not to the extent of irreparably
damaging the existing pattern of race relations. The service
personnel, on the other hand, have also adapted themselves to
the Island expectations, even to the point of choosing wives from
among the non-Caucasian residents and remaining permanently
in Hawaii.

Last to develop among the distinctive types of social situations
affecting race relations in Hawaii is what may properly be
called the tourist frontier. Running back as far as 1784 with the
publication of Captain Cook's Voyages of Discovery, the
Hawaiian Islands have held a particular fascination to Western-
ers as one of the last remaining outposts of romanticism in a
world of increasing mechanization and standardization. Unques-
tionably the prospect of escape from the burdens and responsibil-
ities of a routinized existence at home and the anticipation of a
South Seas idyll led many of the first traders to Hawaii, but the
full effect of such an appeal did not express itself until well
into the twentieth century. It has required the facilities of
modern luxury liners, both by sea and air, and the latest pro-
motion techniques of travel agencies and tourist bureaus to
exploit fully the propaganda appeal of Mark Twain's panegyric
on Hawaii of the last century:

... the loveliest fleet of islands that lies anchored in any ocean. . . .
No alien land in all the world has any deep strong charm for me, but
that one. No other land could so longingly and beseechingly haunt me,
sleeping and waking, through half a lifetime as that one has done.

The influx each year of thousands of visitors in search of
adventure and stimulation, as well as temporary release from the
moral restrictions of their home communities, is bound to have
notable consequences upon the race relations of the Islands. The
tourist shares with the military personnel the racial attitudes of
another community frequently opposed to those prevailing in
Hawaii, at least those prevailing in the urban centers and as
one investing his surplus in the Islands he is sometimes less
inhibited than the military in expressing these attitudes freely.
Theoretically, therefore, the tourists afford a sort of pipeline for

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AMD HAWAII

the introduction of mainland conceptions of race relations, and
the Islanders economically dependent upon their patronage,
notably taxi drivers and hotel operators, tend to "play up" to
these imported ideas.

Practically, however, the tourists come into close contact with
at least that portion of the local community serving their needs
and hence they are better situated than the military to undergo
some change in attitude. To a degree at least, the tourist goes
abroad to leam, and many become converted to the official
Hawaiian doctrine of racial equality. In search of new experience
and release from the prohibitions of his home community, the
tourist may also discard his former racial prejudices with con-
siderable ease, at least while he is away from home. The most
sweeping and enthusiastic endorsements of Hawaiian race rela-
tions and the most glowing accounts of the non-Caucasian
population have come from visitors who only shortly before had
arrived in the Islands, prepared to find fault with the unorthodox
human relationships they encountered.

Race Relations in Flux

Contrary, therefore, to the common impressions, race relations
in Hawaii are manifestly involved and fluid in character. How-
ever distinct the frontier situations just delineated may once have
been, now virtually every part of the Islands is affected to some
degree by all of these differing forces. . . . Not only has the
equalitarian atmosphere of the commercial centers extended into
the military and plantation areas, . . . but the urban centers, in
turn, have felt the impact of military and . . . plantation forces.
Traders and missionaries have become planters, and planters have
become traders or have retired in the cities, with a corresponding
transfer of influence from one area to the other. . . .

The phenomenal conversion of the Hawaiian people to
Christianity within a single generation has given rise to the
mistaken impression that the missionary frontier has long since
disappeared and that the Christian impact upon race relations
is unitary and unchanged. The subsequent introduction of addi-
tional population elements created new fields for converts and
attracted to the Islands a host of different religious movements,
with varying racial emphases, to engage in the process. During
the latter half of the nineteenth century, the Catholic, Episcopal,

THE REFERENCE SHILP

Methodist, and Mormon missions tended to cairy on much the
same tradition of race relations as the Congregationd pioneers,
stressing the value of all peoples in the sight of God The
Catholics were in general less puritanical than their Mormon
and Protestant colleagues in their approach to deviations ^ tram
Western morals encountered among the native and immigrant
groups In contrast to the Protestant and Mormon . ^ . [atti-
tudes] the Catholic church has been somewhat more inclusive
in its appeal and has encouraged marriage across race lines
insofar as both parties are Catholics. The introduction of a wide
range of the emotionally expressive Christian sects since 1930
has served to extend the Protestant influence somewhat into the
lower classes and to promote fraternization across ethnic lines.
At the same time, the older Protestant denominations are gradu-
ally breaking away from the earlier practice of "racial churches
made necessary by the separate languages of the immigrant
groups.

The most striking transformations with respect to race re-
lations have probably occurred with the maturation of the plan-
tations of the Islands. ... The disposition to keep the immi-
grant races in "their place" as laborers has greatly diminished.
Promotion in economic and social status within the plantation
occurs increasingly on the basis of individual merit and ability
rather than of race, and residential segregation according to race,
once essential for effective labor control, is also gradually de-
clining. Strong resistance to the advanced education of the chil-
dren of plantation workers lest they acquire "white-collar 5
tastes and expectations was evident among Hawaiian plantation
interests until well along in the I930's, but such barriers to edu-
cational advancement, insofar as they may still exist in the more
remote portions of the Islands, have been largely negated by the
spread of public and private high schools and colleges.

A wholly intrusive and unexpected element in the breakdown
of racial barriers on the plantations since World War II is the
sudden spread of unionization. Sometimes described as Hawaii's
major revolution, surpassing in social significance the revolution
of 1893 in which Queen Liliuokalani was dethroned, the estab-
lishment of the ILWU as the bargaining agent for workers in
both the sugar and pineapple plantations brought about a degree
of collaboration and fraternization across race lines which had

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWASS 111

never previously been thought possible. Where previously the
efforts of labor to secure recognition had been confined to the
limited and sporadic demonstrations by workers of a single
ethnic group, the unionized workers were forced into active co-
operation without regard for ethnic background. The first Island-
wide strike on the sugar plantations in 1946 and the first large-
scale strike in the pineapple industry in 1947 were also the
initial experience of large numbers of Island workers engaging
In a common cause with persons outside their own racial com-
munity, and although deeply-rooted prejudices could not be im-
mediately eliminated, a new tradition of far-reaching significance
had become well established.

The integration of plantation workers across racial lines has,
however, probably widened the barrier between the predomi-
nantly haole employing group, on the one hand, and the com-
bined non-haole workers, on the other. The phenomenal in-
crease in unionization in Hawaii, from a region which was
formerly among the least organized in the United States to one
which is now among the most highly organized, has also borne
unsuspected consequences in terms of a greater disposition to
give free expression to any irritations on the part of the workers.
Insofar as the workers have been chiefly of the immigrant races
and their grievances have been directed largely toward the large
haole employers, this freer expression has seemed to carry a racial
animus. The more outspoken manifestations of resentments and
irritations, particularly toward the haoles since World War II,
far from reflecting an intensification of racial feelings, actually
testifies to the removal of restraints and a more normal inter-
change across race lines. Where once the haole, especially on
the plantations, lived in a world somewhat apart from the non-
haole workers and thereby protected from their privately held
resentments, he is now within easier range of normal human
Intercourse, critical as well as friendly.

RACE AND OPPORTUNITY IN HAWAII 5

Like most of the other island areas of the Pacific which have
experienced the penetration of Western commerce and trading
practices, In Hawaii the positions of power and of substantial re-

B From "Hawaii in the Race Relations Continuum of the Pacific," by Andrew W.
Land, senior professor of sociology, University of Hawaii. Social Process. 25:12-14.
'6I-'62. Reprinted by permission.

1!2 THE REFERENCE SHELF

wards tended first to be concentrated wholly in the hands of
promoters from Europe and America. Only after some years of
apprenticeship under the new regime could persons of ethnic
groups previously lacking such a tradition be expected to occupy
positions of prestige and influence. There is, however, consider-
able variation among regions in the readiness with which the
less privileged groups are given access to the means of qualifying
for the preferred positions. In this latter respect, owing to ...
[special] circumstances . . . Hawaii has been better situated
than any of the other island areas to afford an equal opportunity
to all of its various ethnic groups. By 1950, for example, the
earlier disabilities of the immigrant labor groups had been so
far overcome as to place the Chinese, most of whose parents or
grandparents arrived in Hawaii a generation or two earlier as
lowly plantation laborers, in a higher average position with re-
spect to annual income than any other ethnic group. Moreover,
in a substantial number of the preferred occupations, the men
and women of Oriental ancestry by 1950 had clearly outstripped
their earlier mentors of Caucasian ancestry. At the same time we
must recognize that not all of the immigrant groups have availed
themselves of the opportunities for economic and social advance-
ment to the same degree and that the more recently arrived im-
migrant groups necessarily operate at a disadvantage as compared
to the earlier arrivals.

One of the further significant developments of the past
decade, reflecting the changing commercial and business rela-
tionships among the various ethnic groups of Hawaii, has been
the acceptance of non-Caucasians as officials and directors of
the larger and once sacrosanct corporations of the Big Five,
Hawaii's interlocking organization of major economic enter-
prises. The participation of Island-born men of Oriental an-
cestry in the direction of the plantations on which their fathers
served as unskilled laborers a generation ago still seems incredible
to observers of the racial scene in most other areas of the Pacific.
Increasingly during the past decade the promoters of new busi-
ness and industrial enterprises expanding from continental
United States have found it advantageous to seek out competent
young men of Oriental ancestry for key positions, recognizing
that their clientele is drawn from a population which is more
than half of Oriental ancestry.

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 113

As recently as twenty years ago, in the competition between
two men of equal technical training for a preferred business posi-
tion, one of Oriental ancestry and the other a Caucasian, the
latter commonly would enjoy the advantage. Today that situa-
tion is frequently, although by no means always, reversed, and
if anyone, it is the Caucasian rather than the Oriental who corn-
plains of being discriminated against.

Similarly, the political control of Hawaii has progressively
lost the racial coloration it possessed a half century ago when a
small minority of Hawaiian and Caucasian elite dominated the
scene. Notably since World War II, the ethnic composition of
both the elected and appointed officials in the government of
the Islands has tended more and more to approximate that of
the entire population of Hawaii, although here also the groups
with the least experience or inclination to engage in politics
are still underrepresented but not unrepresented. By way of
summary and without going into detail, it can be accurately
stated that in no other Pacific islands have any immigrant labor
groups advanced in economic and social status so rapidly and so
far within a comparable period of time.

The most obvious index of a diminishing concern for race and
of an equalitarian relationship across ethnic lines is, of course,
that of interracial marriage and here also Hawaii has progressed
further along the continuum than any of its Pacific island
neighbors, for which accurate records are available. Some ap-
preciation of the degree to which this process has already oc-
curred and of its inevitable impact upon the future quality of
Hawaii's population and social structure may be derived from
the fact that somewhat more than a third of all marriages occur
across ethnic lines and a slightly lower ratio of all children bom
in Hawaii are of mixed ethnic ancestry. As a consequence, it
becomes only a question of time certainly less than another
generation before Hawaii's population will have become so
extensively interbred as to make the retention of the present
system of racial categories a useless pretense. In most other
island areas of the Pacific this same process is also taking place,
but at a much slower pace, judging by such data as are available.

III. THE POLITICAL MEANING
OF STATEHOOD

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

To examine the government of Alaska and Hawaii is to be
impressed, once again, with the similarities between these totally
different pieces of earth. It would, of course, be expected that
new states, in drafting their constitutions, should choose the
best from the experience of the forty-eight that came before.
Happily, such is the case. Alaska and Hawaii have modeled
themselves after the best notably the much praised state con-
stitutions of New Jersey and Missouri. The constitutions of the
new states are both about 10,000 words in length. They are both
"progressive" in their concern for safeguarding human rights
and liberties. And they both feature a strong executive, investing
their governors with the opportunity for imaginative and dy-
namic rule.

Yet as states their political tests are just beginning. Can
Alaska afford statehood? Can she bear the costs of self-govern-
ment in her vast expanse of territory? Can Hawaii, with its
simplified yet highly centralized tradition of government, effec-
tively and fairly administer the realm of her differing peoples
and interests?

There is an old tradition in American government which
holds that the government which is closest to the people is the
best. Such a consideration played an important role in the cam-
paign for statehood in both Alaska and Hawaii. Whatever the
costs and risks might be, the people of the new states, in over-
whelming numbers, were determined to assume for themselves
the burdens and responsibilities that the American Federal sys-
tem reserves to the states of the Union. Now that those burdens
and responsibilities are theirs, the people of Alaska and Hawaii
may be older and wiser, but they do not as yet seem to be any
sadder. For balanced against the burdens of statehood have come
new opportunities for action, not only at the state level, where
capable, energetic men are at the helm, but at the Federal level,

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AHD HAWAII 115

too, where Alaska and Hawaii now each have two senators and
one representative to press their interests and causes.

The first two articles in this section deal with government
in Alaska, the last three with government in Hawaii. In the
first, Alaska's constitution, devised in an academic atmosphere
before statehood and its resulting political pressures was actu-
ally won, is outlined and analyzed. In the second article Alaska's
Senator Ernest Gruening explains and enumerates some of the
political benefits that have come to Alaska after four years
as a state.

In the fourth article Hawaii's constitution, with its strong
executive and its centralized structure, is analyzed by two lead-
ing political scientists. Next a specialist in American govern-
ment for the Library of Congress examines the centralized na-
ture of Hawaiian rule and the problems it may involve. Finally,
in the last article, a journalist describes some of the advantages
of Hawaii's political system in relation to that state's economy.

HOW ALASKA IS GOVERNED *

Alaska's new state constitution according to House Report
No. 624 of June 25, 1957, which accompanied the Act of Admis-
sion of July 7, 1958, has been declared by political scientists and
public administrators "to be one of the finest ever prepared."
This modern constitution was found by Congress "to be repub-
lican in form and in conformity with the Constitution of the
United States and the principles of the Declaration of Independ-
ence, and is hereby accepted, ratified, and confirmed."

Perhaps the outstanding characteristic of Alaska's up-to-date
constitution is its provision for an extremely strong executive
branch of government.

Deeply sensitive of their lack of home rule and of their self-
labeled status as "second class citizens," the sturdy frontier peo-
ple of the new state made sure that residual and active sovereign
power rested with themselves, exercisable through their governor
in whom they vested great power. In Alaska's state government

1 Prom "The Forty-ninth State Sets an Example/* by John S. Hellenthal, a membesr
of the Alaska bar practicing in Anchorage, and a member of Alaska's constitutional
convention. American Bar Association Journal. 44:1147-50. D. *58. Reprinted by pec-

116 THE REFERENCE SHELF

there will be no buck-passing or shirking of responsibility by the
governor

In November of 1955, fifty-five delegates met for seventy-live
days at the University of Alaska at College, near Fairbanks,
Alaska, and drafted the constitution. The voters of Alaska ap-
proved it on April 24, 1956, by better than a two-to-one
majority. ...

Possibly it was fortuitous that at the time the delegates met,
congressional approval of statehood seemed very remote. Had
the delegates met after passage of the Act of Congress they would
undoubtedly have been motivated by political considerations to
a greater degree. As it occurred, however, the delegates were able
to deliberate in a relatively pure academic atmosphere. . . .

Why is Alaska's constitution regarded as one o! the finest?

The basic structure of the new constitution follows the gov-
ernment of typical American states; there are many important
features based upon past experience of the forty-eight states.

Judicial System

The Council of State Governments asserts "the judicial article
embodies many of the concepts long advocated for good court
administration." Some of these are:

(a) The progressive features of the Missouri, California, New
Jersey and American Bar Association plans for selecting judges;

(b) The supreme court will make the rules for all the courts,
subject to the authority of the legislature by two-thirds vote to
amend the rules of practice and procedure;

(c) The chief justice of the supreme court, with an adminis-
trative director serving at his pleasure, will administer the entire
unified judicial system;

(d) The governor will appoint the judges from names sub-
mitted by a seven-man judicial council consisting of three lay
members appointed by him, three lawyer members named by
Alaska's integrated bar, and the chief justice;

(e) Judges desiring to remain in office, must, three years after
their initial appointment, submit their names to the voters of
their jurisdiction for approval or rejection; thereafter, superior
court judges must do so every six years and supreme court justices
every ten years.

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 117

Dr. Sheldon Elliott, of New York University Law School,
Director of the Institute of Judicial Administration, New York,
and a member of the House of Delegates of the American Bar
Association, who had assisted New Jersey in its constitutional
revision, helped in the drafting of the provisions relating to the
judicial branch. The Alaska integrated bar approved the draft
and offered many practical suggestions.

It is noteworthy that Alaska's method of judicial selection,
patterned after the Missouri plan, met with little or no objection
from the bar or the lay public. Under territorial government,
Alaska's district judges were appointed for terms of four years
by the President, often being chosen from nonresidents. One
would excuse long-suffering Alaskans, crying for full local gov-
ernment, had they vigorously opposed any nonelective plan.

A Strong Executive Branch

Perhaps none of the states possesses a stronger executive
branch than the Alaska state constitution provides. There are
no other independently elected officers, and the governor of
Alaska will be held wholly responsible for the conduct of state
administration during his four-year term.

Unhappy territorial experiences, resulting from the fact that
the smallest details of government were administered by absentee
bureaucrats in Washington, undoubtedly influenced this Hamil-
tonian swing of the pendulum. A strong executive may be the
trend in modern state government, as evidenced by the 1947
New Jersey constitution, which creates an executive department
very similar to Alaska's.

Unique features of constitutional provisions relating to the
executive portion of the state government are:

(a) The secretary of state succeeds to the governor's office
in case of vacancy and is nominated at the primary election like
other candidates. At the general election, however, a vote for
the governor is considered a vote for the secretary of state of the
same party running jointly with him. This insures that both
governor and secretary of state will be of the same party. At
Alaska's primary of August 26, 1958, there was some criticism
of this innovation because of the possibility that successful can-
didates for governor and secretary, though of the same party,

118 THE REFERENCE SHELF

might be of very divergent political philosophies. Some believe
the constitution will ultimately be amended to provide that the
governor shall appoint the secretary of state.

(b) Executive departments are limited to twenty, in order to
avoid waste, duplication, and an executive hedgerow. New Jer-
sey's 1947 constitution contains a similar provision.

(c) The governor, subject to being overruled by the legisla-
ture, can reorganize departments and transfer functions among
them.

(d) Individuals appointed (and removable) by the gover-
nor, but confirmed by the legislature, will head principal depart-
ments. Boards or commissions may head departments, if the
legislature so provides, but their principal executive officer must
be approved by the governor although the board may be author-
ized by the legislature to appoint him.

A Truly Representative Legislature

Territorial legislatures were not representative of the people
and of the diverse areas of Alaska, with the result that relatively
uninhabited regions exercised disproportionate power and fre-
quently enabled a determined minority to throttle desirable
legislation.

The membership of the legislature consisting of twenty sena-
tors and forty representatives was carefully apportioned in both
houses according to population and geography, with emphasis
upon area in the Senate and upon population in the House.
Small House and Senate districts assure that the less populated
communities as well as the large cities are represented.

Some modern and progressive features of the article dealing
with the legislature are:

(a) Automatic reapportionment every ten years by the gov-
ernor acting on the advice of an independent board.

(b) Annual legislative meetings of unspecified length.

(c) Annual salaries for legislators.

(d) Veto or reduction of items in appropriation bills is pos-
sible. A three-fourths or two-thirds vote of the legislature, meet-
ing in pint session, depending on whether a revenue and appro-
priation measure or other bill is involved, is required to override
a governor's veto.

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AMD HAWAII 119

(e) It is mandatory that a legislative council be established
to meet between legislative sessions.

(f) A constitutional provision requires legislative regulation
of the practice of lobbying.

Many Modern Constitutional Provisions

Voting age lowered. Nineteen-year-olds are permitted to vote.
High school trained students with elementary civics and govern-
ment fresh in mind should be well suited to enjoy the full rights
of their citizenship. Many believe that youthful voting will tend
to curb delinquency problems by instilling a sense of respon-
sibility following high school, rather than requiring young men
and women to mark time until they are twenty-one years of age.

Up-to-date declaration of rights. Alaska's constitution accents
human rights that have been stressed in current times. Thus
"No person is to be denied the enjoyment of any civil or political
right because of race, color, creed or national origin," and "the
right of all persons to fair and just treatment in the course of
legislative and executive investigations shall not be infringed."

Martial law. The martial law provision is unique, namely
"martial law shall not continue for longer than twenty days
without the approval of a majority of the members of the legis-
lature in joint session."

Finance. Earmarked funds are done away with, rigid tax and
debt limits are abolished. No state debt for capital improvements
can be contracted without approval by the state electorate. The
governor must submit to the legislature a detailed annual budget;
the legislature shall appoint an auditor to conduct legislatively
prescribed postaudits,

Merit system. The legislature must establish a system under
which the merit principle will govern the employment of persons
by the state.

New approach to local government. Evils of county govern-
ments with unchangeable boundaries, many elected officials, and
overlapping tax authority are sought to be avoided by the creation
of "borough" governments corresponding to counties, and to exist
together with city governments as the only two classes of local
government. Organized boroughs will be created as needed.
Provision for home rule in cities and boroughs is made. Service
areas to provide special and limited services in organized and un-

120 THE REFERENCE SHELF

organized boroughs may be established. The constitution is
sufficiently elastic to permit retention of traditional forms ot local
government, should the legislature so desire; cities, however, must
be extended maximum home rule by virtue of a self-executing
provision of the constitution. _...-,

This approach is largely without precedent. The aim is de-
sirable "to provide for maximum local self-government with a
minimum of local government units, and to prevent duplication
of tax-levying jurisdictions." Enlightened, inspired and unselfish
legislation will be needed to accomplish this end within the
constitutional framework.

Natural resources. Provisions dealing with the abundant
natural resources of the new state are advanced and sound.
Maximum use is balanced with continued availability tor hzture
generations. Disposals of rights in state lands must be preceded
by public notice. Mining laws shall follow the pattern of Fed-
eral laws and shall be based upon discovery and appropriation of
mineral resources.

Where the forty-eight states struggled to protect their resources
after statehood, Alaska made provision for their protection prior
to admission.

Amendments. Amendments to the new constitution can be
proposed by a two-thirds vote of each house of the legislature to
be effective after approval of the proposed amendment by a ma-
jority of the votes cast at the next state-wide election.

Constitutional convention. Provision is made for a constitu-
tional convention every ten years. After a period of ten years
passes without a constitutional convention having been held, the
matter of whether or not such a convention shall be held must be
placed before the voters; if the majority votes in the affirmative,
a convention is held. The constitution drawn at this convention
must be ratified by the people. Legislative inaction cannot ham-
string constitutional reform.

Initiative Referendum. The constitution provides for both
initiative and referendum.

Many Proposals Rejected After Delate

Specifically rejected constitutional proposals were those for
a unicameral legislature; elective attorney general, treasurer and
other state officials; provision for "complete" separation of church

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 121

and state; elected judges; independent boards and agencies; bi-
ennial meetings of the legislature; permitting legislators to be
elected from districts other than their district of residence, as in
England; overriding veto by vote of each house, rather than at
joint session; prohibition against payment of public funds for
"indirect" benefit of religious or private schools.

Some proposals were rejected as being legislative in nature,
and many others on more general grounds, e.g. right-to-work
provisions; prohibitions against gambling, and wiretapping or
eavesdropping.

Lessons Learned at Constitutional Convention

Many states presently seek constitutional revision; many need
a thoroughgoing revamping of their outdated constitutions. The
recent experience of Alaska can benefit both groups.

At their convention Alaska's constitutional delegates dis-
covered:

(a) Fifty or sixty delegates can adequately handle the prob-
lem of constitutional revision at a unicameral meeting.

(b) Committees should be established at the outset. Alaska
created these: Judiciary, Legislative, Executive, Natural Resources,
Local Government, Apportionment and Suffrage, Bill of Rights*
Finance, Administrative, and Style and Drafting. The com-
mittees should hold hearings and report their conclusions in the
form of drafts of constitutional articles to the convention floor.

(c) The meeting should be limited in duration. Ninety days
is sufficient time.

(d) A handbook should be prepared well in advance, con-
trasting and comparing constitutional provisions of the forty-nine
states on various subjects.

(e) Full use should be made of professional bodies and of
individuals devoted to study of political science.

(f) The session should recess for about thirty days at the
half-way point to hold public hearings and to explore popular
sentiment.

(g) The question of unicameralism should be buried at the
outset of the session.

122 THE REFERENCE SHELF

(fa.) Certain Illustrative committee hearings should be tele-
vised, as Alaska did, to generate the spirit of constitutional re-

form, _

(i) A secluded university affords ideal environment and at-
mosphere for constitutional deliberation.

During the more than two years following the adoption of
Alaska's constitution by Its people and the approval of the Act
of Admission, no serious criticism of the constitution has been
made by the many powerful foes of Alaska statehood^ either
during the violent debates in Alaska prior to the elections of
April 1956 and August 1958, or during the congressional debates
on statehood In 1957 and 1958. The constitution withstood the
test of debate. Whether or not a modern and efficient state will
result must be determined in ensuing years by the statesmanship
of the legislators and their success in carrying out the intent of
the constitution framers.

ALASKA'S ACHIEVEMENTS UNDER STATEHOOD *

Nearly four years as a state have brought to Alaska tangible
results not possible during the long years the forty-ninth state
was a territory.

Alaska entered the Union on a footing politically equal to its
sister states but economically neglected through years of terri-
torial rule. Efforts during both the Eighty-sixth and Eighty-
seventh Congresses were necessarily directed toward correcting
this economic Inequality.

Federal Government departments and agencies, Informed and
prodded for the first time by elected, voting congressional repre-
sentatives of the state of Alaska, have increased their programing
for the state by millions of dollars.

Part of the task of the Alaska congressional delegation during
these years has been to make certain that existing and proposed
Federal programs were tailored to suit Alaska's special needs.

Another part of the task has been to take decisive action with
Federal agencies to protect Alaska's Interests against encroach-
ment, such as our protests against Russian and Japanese fishing
intrusions.

*From **Four Years of Unprecedented Achievement the Greatest Progress in
Alaskan History"; extension of remarks in the United States Senate by Senator Ernest
Graening (Democrat, Alaska), October 13, 1962, Congressional Record. 108:A7806-I2.
O. 19, *62.

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AHD HAWAII 123

Many advances have been made in the economic develop-
ment of Alaska, some of major significance to the future of our
state, others of less import but significant nevertheless in clear-
ing away obstructions which would hinder future growth.

A Highway Program for Alaska

One of the most important bills for Alaska approved by the
Eighty-seventh Congress is Senate Joint Resolution 137, now
a part of the Federal Aid Highway Act which takes the im-
portant long-awaited first step toward positive planning and de-
velopment of a road system within our state. . . .

During my testimony on behalf of Senate Joint Resolution
137 I compared the cost of visits to three large cities in three
states by a family of four, mother, father, and two children,
ages 10 and 14. The states compared were Oklahoma, Michigan.,
and Alaska. The Oklahomans followed roads to and from
Beaver City to Oklahoma City, a distance of 450 miles and the
gasoline cost was $7.50. The Michiganites made a round trip
from Alpena to Detroit, 464 miles, for the same amount. The
Alaskans' round trip to Anchorage and back to Bethel cost $462
via air highway since no road exists.

Two New Hydroelectric Projects for Alaska

The Eighty-seventh Congress has shown its interest in the
development of Alaska's great natural resources by its authoriza-
tion of the construction of two new hydroelectric power projects:

First. The Crater-Long Lakes division of the Snettisham
project near Juneau.

Second. The Bradley Lake project on the Kenai Peninsula. . . .

Advancement for Rampart

When the Development & Resources Corporation of New
York presented its final report on the proposed Rampart [Dam]
project to the Corps of Engineers it said the market for power
from the project would create a busy and prosperous Alaska
which would "almost certainly become a substantial producer of
electric-furnace pig iron and steel, ferroalloys, copper, magnesium,.

124 THE REFERENCE SHELF

chlorine and caustic soda, calcium carbide, abrasives, nitrogen,
phosphorous titanium and other products." The study is part
of intensive investigations now under way on the proposed proj-
ect for a $1% billion dam which will have installed capacity
of approximately 5 million kilowatts and will produce energy at
a cost of 2 mills at the bus-bar and not to exceed 3 mills per
kilowatt-hour at tidewater. .

Rampart Dam would be the biggest power producer in the
free world. Better than $900,000 will have been used for Ram-
part project studies by the close of fiscal year 1963 on June 30,
1962. The total estimated Federal cost of the survey is $1.3
million which the Alaska congressional delegation hopes can
be completed in fiscal year 1964. , . .

The Development & Resources report makes clear that even
the tremendous power to be generated by Rampart will be in-
sufficient for Alaska's needs and that a whole Yukon River de-
velopment will be required. In pursuance of this conclusion, I
requested and obtained authorization for the Corps of Engineers
to investigate the Woodchopper site upstream from Rampart. . . .

Area Redevelopment Act

How to relieve the problem of chronic unemployment which
affected many areas of the nation was a major item confronting
members of the Eighty-seventh Congress. Unemployment stood
at more than 5 million workers. In Alaska the percentage of
unemployed was high in most parts of the state. . . .

The Area Redevelopment Act became Public Law 87-27 on
May 1 3 1961. The act is administered through the Area Re-
development Administration in the United States Department
of Commerce. ARA brought together a number of Federal Gov-
ernment departments and agencies with resources which could
be focused on the problem of helping create new jobs. It helps
areas diversify and rebuild their economic base. It creates new
employment opportunities through its positive approach, and
astute administration of the program has furthered its develop-
ment.

As this report was being prepared, nine ARA projects, with
a monetary value of $1,580,962, have been approved for Alaska.
The four traimng programs and the one public facilities loan

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 125

will provide jobs for 595 persons, and will help correct the situ-
ation which existed early in January 196 1, when the state un-
employment rate was 18.7 per cent . . .

Alaska's interest in the ARA program has drawn commenda-
tion by ARA spokesmen. The forty-ninth state is one of two
in the Union to present an over- all economic development pro-
gram. This was done in September of 1962 and the program Is
now under consideration. . . .

Manpower Development and Training Act of 1962

With rapid technological changes occurring in industry, the
needs of labor change and the skills become outmoded. The
Manpower Development and Training Act provides a positive
approach for meeting this challenge. . . .

The program is suited to Alaska and its training and em-
ployment needs. . . . Eighty-five per cent of the Alaska labor
needs are in the nonindustrial areas and people must be trained
to fill the needs of the labor market Such needs include the
development of the oil industry, the expansion of the highway
program and the extension of the agriculture potential,

Telephone and Air Transportation Taxes

Alaskans, dependent on air transportation for much of their
travel, will benefit from congressional action which I supported.
The transportation tax on air travel drops from 10 to 5 per
cent on November 15, 1962. The air transportation tax ends
June 30, 1963

The tax on long distance telephone calls is now on a year-
to-year extension basis. The current extension expires June 30,
1963. The tax on local calls was removed July 1, 1960.

HOW HAWAII IS GOVERNED s

The admission of a state to the Union is a matter of such
rarity that the occasion always arouses real interest as to the
nature and provisions of the constitution of the new arrival.

"From "The Hawaiian Constitution: A Structure for Good Government,** by Paul
C. Bartholomew, professor of political science, University of Notre Dame, and Robert
M. Kamins, professor of economics, University of Hawaii. American Bar Association
Journal 45:1145-8+. N. '59. Reprinted by permission.

THE REFERENCE SHELF

The addition of Hawaii to round out our half hundred states
is no exception, even though the constitution has actually been
in existence since 1950. . . .

The people of Hawaii had not waited for Congress to pass
an enabling act before proceeding to the framing of a constitu-
tion for the proposed state. In 1950 a convention of elected
delegates met in Honolulu and proceeded to draw up a consti-
tution which was signed at lolani Palace on July 22. This was
submitted to the voters of Hawaii and approved by a three-to-
one majority on November 7, 1950. The action of Congress in
adopting the Statehood Act of 1959 involved approval of this
constitution. . . .

Hawaii's State Constitution

All state constitutions have some statement of the rights
of persons under the state's jurisdiction. In the Hawaiian con-
stitution this statement (Article I) is called the "Bill of Rights,"
and it generally follows the Bill of Rights of the Federal Con-
stitution. Here is set forth a recognition of popular sovereignty,
the equality of men and their mutual rights and duties. Specific
guarantees include life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, property,
religion, speech, press, assembly, petition, due process, grand jury,
trial by jury in both civil and criminal cases, proper accusation
of crime, witnesses, counsel, habeas corpus, the subordination of
the military to civil power, and the right to bear arms through
a militia. There are specific guarantees against unreasonable
search and seizure, double jeopardy, self-incrimination, exces-
sive bail or fines, cruel or unusual punishment, quartering of
soldiers or militiamen and imprisonment for debt. There is a
final statement to take care of the "principle of exclusion" that
"the enumeration of rights and privileges shall not be construed
to impair or deny others retained by the people."

These are the basic rights that are found in all state con-
stitutions. However, other states have additional basic guarantees
covering the right of privacy, the location of the power to sus-
pend laws, the prohibition of ex post facto laws and the out-
lawing of slavery. On the other hand there are a number of
specific guarantees in the Hawaiian constitution that are not
included in all of the other state constitutions, such as freedom

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AMD HAWAII 127

of the press. The influence of the Federal constitutional model
is here obvious.

Article n concerns suffrage and elections. Twenty years is
set as the minimum age for voting. This contrasts with Alaska's
nineteen years and the eighteen-year minimum of Georgia and
Kentucky. All other states have a twenty-one-year limit One
year is set as the period of legal residence in Hawaii. In odier
states, this ranges from six months to two years. United States
citizenship, registration, and a literacy test of ability to speak,
read and write English or Hawaiian are added voting qualifica-
tions. The first of these is found in all states while registration
and a literacy test are qualifications in about a third of the states.

The date of general elections follows the pattern of all 0*
the other states except Alaska the Tuesday after the first Mon-
day in November of even-numbered years. The legislature is
specifically empowered to prescribe methods of voting, including
absentee voting, with the provision that voting is to be secret.
The legislature is also charged with determining the procedure
for deciding disputed elections but this determination is to be in
a court of competent Jurisdiction. As is common in other states,
persons of unsound mind or those convicted of a felony are
barred from voting unless pardoned and restored to their civil
rights.

The Legislature

Article III is the legislative article. The Legislature (the col-
lective name for the two houses) is to consist of a Senate of
twenty-five members and a House of Representatives of fifty-one
members. Only Delaware and Nevada have a smaller total
number of legislators except, of course, Nebraska's single house
of forty-three. One might have expected that the example set
by the Nebraska unicameral experiment would have been fol-
lowed, but Nebraska remains the only state with a one-house
legislature. Members of the Senate and the House are to be
elected from districts. Six senatorial districts are set by the con-
stitution, together with the number of senators to be elected
from each. The eighteen representative districts and the number
of members to be chosen from each are temporarily set in the
constitution. Reapportiomnent every ten years is to be by the
governor by the method of equal proportion the mathematical

128 THE REFERENCE SHELF

formula used in the apportionment of the lower house of Con-
gress among four basic areas in the Islands. Apportionment
is to be based on the number of voters registered at the last
preceding general election.

This provision requiring the governor to reapportion is
unique among the states. In most states this is an exclusive
power of the legislature, but California, Illinois, Michigan,
Oregon, South Dakota, Texas and Washington provide alter-
native procedures in case the legislature neglects to reapportion.
Arizona, Arkansas, Missouri and Ohio reapportion by means of
boards, of which the governor is a member in Arkansas and
Ohio, but only in Hawaii is the governor himself authorized to
perform the function exclusively. The Hawaiian supreme court
is empowered to require "by mandamus or otherwise'* that the
governor perform this duty, if he fails to do it, or to correct
errors he may have made in the process.

Terms of representatives and senators are two and four years
respectively, which is the arrangement in thirty states including
Alaska. There is provision for overlapping terms with half of the
Senate membership chosen at each succeeding election. The
legislature is authorized to provide for the filling of vacancies
and to set the compensation of members. Qualifications for mem-
bership include an age minimum of twenty-five years for the
House and thirty for "die Senate, residence in the state for at least
three years, and the fulfillment of all requirements for voting
in the district from which the candidate seeks to be elected. The
usual legislative immunities are extended to members.

Sessions of the legislature are to be held annually, those in
the odd-numbered years are to be known as "general sessions"
and those in the even-numbered years are to be known as "budget
sessions." At the latter the only business eligible for considera-
tion and enactment is to be the following: revenue bills, appro-
priation bills, emergency measures (requiring a two-thirds vote
of all members of each house), bills calling elections, bills pro-
posing constitutional amendments, and measures relating to the
impeachment or removal of officers.

General sessions are to be limited to sixty days and budget
sessions to thirty days. The governor may call special sessions
which are to be limited to thirty days. All of these periods ex-
clude Sundays and holidays. Regular sessions are set for the

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 129

third Wednesday in February. Only Alabama (May), Florida
(April) and Louisiana (May) have later meeting dates. Almost
all other state legislatures meet in January. Until changed by
law, the constitution provides that legislative salaries are to be
$2,500 per each general session, $1,500 per each budget session
and $750 per each special session.

Unusual provisions governing legislative procedure include
the discharge of a committee from further consideration of a bill
twenty days after that bill has been referred to the committee.
Such recall of a bill is to be by a two-thirds vote of the entire
membership of that house. The vote on the final passage of a
bill in all cases is to be by a majority of the total membership
of that house and is to be by roll call.

The governor has the item veto as applied to appropriation
bills, as is true in most states. He has ten days to consider bills
normally, Sundays and holidays excluded. Only Georgia and
Alaska permit a longer period of consideration. The Hawaii con-
stitution tries to avoid pocket vetoes. Borrowing an innovation
from New Jersey's 1947 constitution, Hawaii's new basic law
authorizes each legislature to convene on the forty-fifth day after
its adjournment sine die for the sole purpose of considering bills
vetoed by the governor. Vetoes can be overridden only by vote
of two thirds of the full membership of each house. However,
if the legislature fails to convene after its ordinary session, bills
returned by the governor do not become law.

Impeachment procedure is entirely normal by comparison
with other states. Charges are to be brought in the House of
Representatives and trial is to be in the Senate with a two-thirds
vote of the members of the Senate required for conviction.

The Governor

Article IV is the executive article. The governor is chosen by
plurality vote. This is true of all states except Georgia, Maine,
Vermont and Mississippi, where a majority vote is required. In
these states, if no candidate receives a majority of the votes,
either the two houses in joint session (Georgia and Vermont) or
the lower house of the legislature (Maine and Mississippi) makes
the selection.

130 THE REFERENCE SHELF

The term of office of the governor of Hawaii is set at four
years, as in thirty states, including Alaska. There is no limit on
the number of consecutive terms he may serve as there is in
twenty-three other states, also including Alaska. Qualifications
include a minimum age of thirty-five years, United States citizen-
ship for twenty years and qualifying as a voter. The governor is
ineligible for any other state or Federal office during his term.
The constitution provides that his annual salary shall be at least
$18,000. The 1959 territorial legislature increased it to $25,000
per annum.

As in all but eleven states, there is a lieutenant governor. He
is chosen at the same time, in the same manner, with the same
qualifications, and for the same term as the governor, but may
be of the opposite political party. . . .

The powers of the governor are of the usual sort found in the
other states to faithfully execute the laws, to serve as com-
mander-in-chief of "the aimed forces of the state," to recommend
measures to the legislature, and to grant reprieves, commutations
and pardons. One unusual feature is the authorization to the
governor to appoint an administrative director "to serve at his
pleasure." No duties are specified for this office, although this
may develop somewhat along the lines of the chief administrative
officer (CAO) being established in more and more cities. No
other state appears to have an officer comparable to Hawaii's
administrative director. . . .

Administrative departments are to be established by law but
are limited to twenty "principal" departments. The head of each
department is to be appointed by the governor with the consent
of the Senate and subject to removal by the same procedure. . . .

An unusual feature of this constitution (and that of Alaska
also) is limiting the number of elective executive offices to those
of the governor and lieutenant governor. Most state constitutions
"freeze" a large number of offices such as auditor, treasurer,
attorney general, and superintendent of public instruction in the
constitution, all to be chosen by popular vote. This reduces the
power of both the legislature and the governor in those states,
particularly the governor, and opens the way for intra-admin-
istrative feuding. This has been avoided by the framers of the
Hawaiian constitution.

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 131

The Judiciary

The last of the "big three" divisions of governmental power,
the judiciary, is established by Article V. A supreme court and
circuit courts are established by the constitution, but the creation
of inferior courts is left for the legislature. (There are now
twenty-nine district magistrates' courts). The Supreme Court is
to consist of five justices including the chief justice. These are
to be named by the governor and Senate for seven-year terms.
All judges must have been admitted to the bar of the Hawaiian
Supreme Court for at least ten years prior to appointment. Man-
datory retirement is set at seventy years of age. Removal of
judges is to be by a two-thirds vote of the membership of each
house of the legislature sitting in joint session. Provision is made
for retirement of a judge for incapacity. This is to be done by the
governor upon the recommendation of an investigatory board. . . .

It is regrettable that the framers of the Hawaiian constitution
did not adopt some variation of the plan used in California and
Missouri for the choice of judges, as did Alaska. [See the first
article in this section, above.] However, it is good that the
example of the thirty-six states that use popular election for the
choice of judges was not followed.

Taxation and Finance

Artice VI deals with taxation and finance. There is to be no
discriminatory taxation of property owned by citizens of the
United States who reside outside the state. All bonds and other
instruments of indebtedness of a political subdivision must be
authorized by its governing body. The state debt limit is set at
an absolute $60 million. More than half of the fifty states have
some fixed sum limitation on outstanding unpaid indebtedness.
In Hawaii this debt limit can be exceeded when authorized by
a two-thirds vote of the total membership of each house of the
legislature. However, even with such authorization, the amount
of general obligation bonds outstanding cannot exceed a sum
equal to 15 per cent of the total assessed valuation of real
property in the state. "Instruments of indebtedness" issued for
certain specified purposes, and to meet emergencies caused by
disaster or act of God, may be issued without regard to the debt
limit. The same is true if these instruments of indebtedness are

13 2 THE REFERENCE SHELF

issued in anticipation of revenue collections or to meet "casual
deficits or failures of revenue" and are payable within one
year. . . .

The executive type of budget is provided. All but six states use
this arrangement which establishes the governor as the budget-
making authority. He is further given the duty of submitting
bills simultaneously with the budget to provide for any added
revenues or borrowing that may be necessary to meet the proposed
expenditures. This is a practical attempt to eliminate unbalanced
budgets. The legislature is to appoint an auditor by majority
vote of the members of the legislature in joint session. The
auditor has the duty to post-audit and to report to the governor
and the legislature.

Local Government

Article VII is the local government article. The legislature is
required to create counties as the major political subdivision of
the state and may establish other subdivisions. This is the usual
pattern among the various states. Only Louisiana with parishes
and Alaska with boroughs depart from this pattern. Each sub-
division is granted self-government, but this is potentially nulli-
fied by the further provision that the exercise of this self-govern-
ment is to be done "within such limits and under such procedures
as may be prescribed by law."

Article VHI makes it the obligation of the legislature to
provide for: (1) the protection and promotion of the public
health, (2) the treatment, rehabilitation and care of mentally
and physically handicapped persons, (3) assistance for persons
unable to live in a manner compatible with decency and health,
(4) slum clearance and low income housing, and (5) the
conservation of natural beauty spots as well as those of historic
or cultural interest.

Article IX directs the establishment of a public school system
free from sectarian control as well as a university (the University
of Hawaii), libraries, and other institutions. Segregation on the
basis of race, religion or ancestry is specifically forbidden. The
wall of separation between church and state in this area is
guaranteed by the proviso that public funds shall not be used
"for the support or benefit of any sectarian or private educational
institution." . . .

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 133

Natural Resources

Article X is concerned with the conservation of natural re-
sources. The legislature is ordered to vest the powers of
management and disposition of these natural resources agri-
cultural, fish, mineral, forest, water, land, game, and others in
one or more executive boards or commissions. All fisheries of the
sea waters are to be free to the public, subject to vested rights.
Any possibility of preferential treatment for private interests with
respect to natural resources is guarded against by the requirement
that the state power over public lands is to be exercised only by
general laws except where public agencies are involved. Further,
the public lands are to be used for the development of farm and
home ownership on as widespread a basis as possible. This last
provision reflects the historic background of landownership in
the Islands where leaseholding arrangements have been prevalent
and (on Oahu) land available for ownership in fee has been in
chronically short supply.

The following Article (XI) continues the consideration of
home lands by adopting as a law of the state the Federal
Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920. The treatment of the
Hawaiian Homes Commission Act (under which residential and
homesteading properties are supplied at an annual rental of one
dollar to persons of at least half-Polynesian ancestry) comprises
a constitutional anomaly. The act admitting Hawaii to the
Union provides that those sections of the Hawaiian Homes
Commission Act which relate to its administration can be
amended in the state constitution or by statute, but that other
sections, including those dealing with funds, cannot be amended
without the consent of the United States. No parallel restriction
upon the self-government of an American state appears to have
been imposed by Congress, and in the light of the determination
of previous similar, but different, restrictions, the provision may
be legally vulnerable.

Miscellaneous Provisions

Article XII guarantees to employees in private enterprise the
right to organize and to bargain collectively. Those in public
employment are extended the right to organize and to present to
the government their grievances and proposals.

134 THE REFERENCE SHELF

The boundaries, the capital (Honolulu), and the state flag
(the Hawaiian flag, modeled after the British) are established in
Article XHL

Article XTV contains general and miscellaneous provisions,
some of which are unusual. The merit principle is adopted for
public employment subject to law. Any public employees' retire-
ment system is to be a contractual relationship not subject to
diminution or impairment. Loyalty to Federal and state govern-
ments is made a qualification for public employment and a
constitutional oath is set forth. The "exclusion principle" is
recognized with the provision that "the enumeration in this
constitution of specified powers shall not be construed as limita-
tions upon the power of the state to provide for the general
welfare of the people."

In Article XV are set forth the details of revision and amend-
ment of the constitution. Two methods are provided, by con-
vention and by the legislature. The periodic submission plan is
adopted in the requirement that at least every ten years the
question of calling a constitutional convention must be submitted
to the electorate. The possibility that the Hawaiian legislature
may neglect to do this is guarded against by providing that the
lieutenant governor must certify the question of calling a
convention if the legislature has failed to do so. The legislature
may propose amendments by a two-thirds vote of each house at
one session after the governor has received at least a ten-day
written notice of the final form of the proposed amendment.
Alternatively, amendments can be proposed by a majority vote
of each house on the proposal at each of two successive sessions.

Regardless of whether the amendment is proposed by con-
vention or by the legislature, it is then submitted to a vote of
the electorate at a general election. The proposition must secure
a majority of all of the votes cast on the question and this
favorable vote must also constitute at least 35 per cent of the
total number of registered voters. . . .

The final article (XVI) is the very necessary but transitory
Schedule Article. This contains the details and the step-by-step
procedure for putting the constitution into effect. . . .

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 135

A "Good Structure"

The Hawaii constitution is brief (11,400 words) and generally
incorporates the better constitutional provisions of the other
American states. Its drafters, however, did not completely avoid
the trap of ^being overly specific in dealing with quantities. The
state debt limit of $60 million, which seemed generous when the
constitution was drafted nine years ago, is inadequate to the
point of temporarily embarrassing the fiscal operation of the new
state. The requirement that the lower house be reapportioned
on or before June 1, 1959, proves to be ineffective, because the
delay in achieving statehood left Hawaii without a state legisla-
ture on that date.

In addition, the Congress placed unusual limitations on
Hawaii by requiring, in the act of admission, that basic amend-
ments to the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act be approved by
the United States in order to be effective. Despite these difficul-
ties and shortcomings, however, the constitution of the state of
Hawaii affords a good structure for the governance of the fiftieth
state.

HAWAII'S CENTRALIZED GOVERNMENT 4

There is abundant evidence that, in the transition from
territorial status to statehood, no significant change was made or
intended in the design of Hawaiian government. That govern-
ment was, and still is, characterized by a high degree of central-
ization, ranking with Delaware, North Carolina, and in some
respects, Virginia and West Virginia as among the most highly
centralized in the nation. For proof of this, one may turn to a
number of sources of information . . . the state constitution,
basic laws on the organizational structure of the state govern-
ment, and significant comments found in published materials
relating to state and local government

The Hawaiian Constitution

... In four articles at least, there are provisions bearing upon
state-local relations and the problem of centralization. These are

4 From Centralization of Government in Hawaii, Library of Congress Legislative
Reference Service study, by W. Brooke Graves, specialist in American government of the
Library of Congress, mimeo. Library of Congress. Washington 25, D.C. Mr. 30, '62.
p 2-11, 18.

13 & THE REFERENCE SHELF

Article VII on local government, and Articles VIII, IX and X
which are concerned, respectively, with public health and welfare,
education, and conservation and development of resources.

In Article VII, the legislature is directed to create counties and
authorized to create other political subdivisions, each of which
"shall have and exercise such powers as shall be conferred under
general laws." This statement in Section 1 is followed^ by a
section granting home rule powers to political subdivisions "with-
in such limits and under such provisions as may be prescribed
by law." The concluding Section 5 provides that "this article
shall not limit the power of the legislature to enact laws of
statewide concern." There is nothing particularly unusual about
these provisions, but there is about Section 3 which reads as
follows:

The taxing power sliall be reserved to the State except so much
thereof as may be delegated by the legislature to the political subdivi-
sions, and the legislature shall have the power to apportion state
revenues among the several political subdivisions.

In this, it is obvious that a high degree of state control over
what, in many jurisdictions, are regarded as local finances, has
been retained by the state.

These provisions on local government take on an added
significance when viewed in relation to ... the historical back-
ground. County government was established in Hawaii on
January 1, 1906, after an earlier act of 1903 had been declared
unconstitutional. . . .

It appears that counties in Hawaii were created in part to
satisfy the demands of the Congress at the turn of the century.
It is reported that "certain factors in pre-territorial Hawaii prior
to the organic act of 1900 indicated a desire for more centraliza-
tion." Professor [Bruce B.] Mason summarized the situation as
follows:

These factors were the physical topography, with the only suitable
port being at Honolulu; the plantation system with its private govern-
ment; the desire to keep control over the multitude of immigrants who
came to work on the plantations; the dominance of the haoles (whites
of North European origin); and the zeal of missionaries to Christianize
the Islands. Added to these factors as the territory developed were
Republican control, until challenged by the Democrats in the 1950's,
and the disfranchisement of Orientals until 1952.

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 137

Therefore, even though counties were created, they remained sub-
servient to the central government to such an extent that Norman
Heller characterized the situation in 1958 as follows; "Hawaii ... pre-
sents ... an extreme of centralized administration probably unequaled
in any state in the mainland." [National Civic Review. O. *59J

As Hawaii moved from territorial status to statehood, its
constitution and recent history seemed to promise somewhat more
county home rule, although the constitution continued the state's
control of health, education and welfare. In fact, the constitution
is very specific on these matters, such phrases as "The State shall
provide for," and "The State shall have power 55 occurring re-
peatedly in Articles VIII, IX and X. Article VIH deals with
public health and welfare, and specifically covers public health,
care of the handicapped, public assistance, slum clearance, re-
habilitation and housing, and public sightliness and good
order. . . .

At the time of the transition, Professor Meller felt that the
counties were at the crossroads. The major functions noted were
still territorial functions but the 1957 legislature, controlled by
the Democrats, promised more home rule and gave the counties
new taxing powers and more freedom from administrative super-
vision. He regarded it as questionable whether Hawaiians would
overturn more than fifty years' experience under centralized
administration. Professor Mason thought that he saw in a
provision in Article IX, calling for state-wide control over educa-
tion under a board appointed by the governor from panels
submitted by local school advisory councils, a possible clue to
the future.

Organizational Structure

The organizational structure of Hawaiian government was
largely a result of two influences, territorial experience and the
then recent example of success in New Jersey with both con-
stitutional revision and executive reorganization. The territorial
experience conditioned the thinking of the constitutional con-
vention, the people, and the legislature in favor of centralization,
while the New Jersey experience made clear the methods by
which their disposition to establish a strong executive and a
highly centralized government could be realized.

138 THE REFERENCE SHELF

Hawaii followed New York and New Jersey, and the Model
State Constitution as well, in limiting the number of executive
departments to twenty. . . .

While the departmental structure is of interest and pertinent
to the present discussion, the guiding principles upon which the
nature of the organizational structure was determined are of far
greater importance. There are, as the Joint [Legislative Interim]
Committee Report [to the Hawaii State Legislature, 1959] ob-
serves, "several basic concepts which have been applied and
tested over the years among the various national and state gov-
ernments and which may be profitably used as guides in organ-
izing the Hawaii state government. It is worthy of note that the
framers of the Hawaii state constitution have explicitly or
implicitly incorporated these concepts in the constitution." The
concepts are:

1. That executive authority should be commensurate with
responsibility.

2. That all administrative agencies should be consolidated
into a small number of departments organized by function.

3. That the lines of authority should be clear.

4. That departments headed by a single executive shall be
the general rule.

5. That the responsible line officers shall be given adequate
staff to assist them in the performance of their responsibility.

6. That organization is dynamic, and a minimum of obstacles
should be placed upon the executive branch in its effort to carry
out the public will as expressed in law.

Significant Comment in the Literature on
State and Local Government

Because they are illustrative and relate to important govern-
mental functions, comments here will be limited to the schools
[and] land use. . . .

Schools. During the past several years, former President James
B. Conant of Harvard University has been engaged in a com-
prehensive study of public elementary and secondary education
in the United States. ... In considering the problem of organ-

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 139

ization, he discusses the diversity and size of school districts in
the American states. Placed ninth in the list of the ten largest
school districts, as measured both in terms of total population
and public school enrollment, stands the state of Hawaii which
Dr. Conant characterizes as "the only truly state system in the
nation. In Hawaii [he continues] there are no local districts or
local school boards or superintendents; school revenues and ex-
penditures are determined at the state level, as are curriculum
matters and the hiring and placement of teachers." . . . One
could scarcely wish for any more conclusive evidence of the
highly centralized character of public education in Hawaii.

Land use. One of the major problems confronting state
governments at the present time involves the relations of the
states with their municipalities and metropolitan areas. Among
the more serious aspects of this problem is land use planning
and zoning, safeguarding of open spaces, and the control of
"urban sprawl." While other states dawdle over this problem,
accomplishing little or taking no action at all, while the problem
grows steadily worse, Hawaii during the 1961 legislative session
took decisive action ... in this field of activity. The new legisla-
tion is designed to prevent urban sprawl, to preserve open spaces
and to protect high-value crop lands. No other state has moved
... so far in the direction of state- wide planning and land use
control. And obviously, this represents a high degree of centrali-
zation in an area which, in other jurisdictions, appears still to be
regarded as very largely a local matter.

The new legislation will be administered by a State Land Use
Commission which is authorized to set the boundaries and pre-
scribe the use regulations for three major zoning districts urban,
agricultural and conservation. The districts will include all land
In the Islands. Within each district, the counties will continue
their normal zoning procedures, limited only by the state-defined
zones and their regulations. Subdivisions, apartments, shopping
centers, and the like, will be permitted in the urban zone, but
will be excluded from the other two districts. The National
Municipal League reports that "it is generally believed that state
zoning will prove successful in Hawaii, and that the simplified
government only five counties and a highly centralized state
government will be an important factor. 5 * . . . [Author's italics.]

,40 THE REFERENCE SHELF

Hawaiian Government in the Decade of the Sixties

. . . What is the outlook for the next decade? What things
can or should be done to maintain a state government that is
structurally equipped properly to perform its duties and that, at
the same time, will be both responsive to the will of the people
and responsible? . . .

In the first place, no drastic or sweeping changes in existing
arrangements are required. Both the state constitution and the
governmental structure are relatively new. With possibly one
exception, the question is, therefore, more one of maintaining
what has already been established, and making changes or im-
provements as need arises, rather than contemplating any
far-reaching changes at the present time. . . .

[One] problem to be considered ... is that of popular control
of government This is always important in a democratic society,
but is particularly so in the case of Hawaii because of the highly
centralized system of government and the very strong executive
branch established there. What Hawaii has done is generally in
accord with the ideas that leading students of state government
have been advocating for many years.

This system (centralization plus a strong executive) does,
however, create problems in the field of popular control, in a
state and among a people dedicated to democratic ideals. What
steps can or should be taken to insure that this government does
not get out of hand, that it does remain both responsive to the
will of the people and responsible to them? . . . Three possible
procedures or devices . . . have been or are being used for this
purpose in other jurisdictions: (1) state- wide citizen organization,
(2) a commissioner of investigations; (3) a joint legislative
committee on government operations.

GAINS FROM SIMPLIFIED RULE IN HAWAII 5

The forty-nine other states have good reason to be envious of
the fiftieth state.

Hawaii, in addition to its traditional boasts of unbeatable
climate and tourist attractions, also lays claim to the most sim-

5 From "Hawaii Is Termed Governmental Paradise," by Gene Smith, New York
Times staff correspondent. New York Times. O. 16, '60. p 1+- Copyright by The
New York Times. Reprinted by permission.

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AN0 HAWAII 141

plified and streamlined governmental and fiscal structure of any
of the states.

For example, the state Has only two levels of government
the state and ... [five] counties. And the reorganization of the
state government in 1959 reduced to eighteen the number of de-
partments that rule. Prior to that there were 104 departments,
boards and commissions.

As Governor William F. Quinn explains it:

The pace of economic change in Hawaii has been so rapid in
recent years that any understanding of Hawaii's economy based on
knowledge of five or ten years ago is largely outmoded. . . ,

Recent developments in Hawaii's state finances should be of real
interest to the financial community. ... I doubt that any state can
match Hawaii's record in the last year, which includes a general fund
surplus equal to nearly 20 per cent of general fund tax revenues, a
modest tax reduction, a significant reduction in the state's general obli-
gation debt of 4*/2 Per cent and a capital improvement program of
$16.3 million during the present fiscal year financed on a pay-as-you-go
basis.

The transition from territorial status to statehood, according
to Governor Quinn, has been accomplished with essentially no
disruption of governmental processes. As related to the issuance
of bonds, the fiftieth state's financial structure is limited to the
state itself and four counties the city and county of Honolulu,
which embraces the island of Oahu; the county of Hawaii, which
is limited to that island; Kauai County, and Maui County, which
includes that island and Molokai and Lanai. . . . [The fifth
county is Kalawao, which comprises the leper settlement on the
island of Molokai. Ed.]

The governor's report noted that "never in Hawaii's history-
has the state or the counties failed to make full interest and
principal payment on their bonded debt when due. Never in
history has a payment on an Hawaiian revenue bond been
missed."

Commonwealth Services, Inc., engineering and consulting
concern, . . . concluded that, while Hawaii ranks fiftieth in
seniority among the states, "at no point is it fiftieth by reference
to such standard measures of economic growth as total personal
income, civilian employment, volume of retail trade, construction
put in place, bank deposits or total population."

14 2 THE REFERENCE SHELF

Fast Growth

In the last five years its rate of growth has been nearly twice
that of the forty-eight mainland states as a group. Its growth is
about as fast as California's but not quite as fast as Florida's or
Arizona's.

Output per farm worker is more than double the United
States average and the state ranks seventh in average home con-
sumption of electricity-4,736 kilowatt-hours, or 28 per cent
above the national average of 3,707 as of June 30.

The governor's report seeks in the main to dispel the idea
that Hawaii is just a land of tourists and pineapples, although
tourism brings in more than $100 million a year and pineapples
account for an additional $130 million.

The garment industry, best known for aloha shirts and the
women's muu muu, add $18 million to the state's economy.

Sugar brings in an additional $130 million and Hawaiians
look for great expanson in this field because of the present Cuban
situation. The cane sugar yield runs above five tons a year per
acre, against two tons in Louisiana and Cuba and four tons in
Florida.

Defense Expenditures

Also looming large in the economic picture is the military,
whose payrolls and purchases of goods and services top $330
million a year. However, the report warns that "in the Hawaii
of 1960 . . . Defense Department expenditures represent less than
one quarter of Hawaii's total personal income."

Expansion in the state is concentrated in fields such as steel
production, cement plants, oil refining, steel pipe fabrication,
plastics, electronics and other modern industries. Big-name
mainland companies are stepping into the picture all the time.

The Standard Oil Company of California is opening a new
refinery this month. Hawaiian Cement and Permanente Cement
started their operations this summer and Hawaiian Western
Steel's electric melting and rolling facilities are operating on a
regular schedule.

Total private and government construction has risen from
$97 million in 1955 to $216 million last year and the estimate
for this year is $260 million.

THE MEW STATES: ALASKA AMD HAWASS 143

In summary, Governor Quinn's report points out that "no
state has so few units of local government . . . with no school
districts, no townships, no separate municipalities to levy taxes
or incur debt." These are the prime reasons for the state's sound
investment and financial progress.

IV. THE ECONOMIC MEANING

OF STATEHOOD

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

One immediate result of statehood for Alaska and Hawaii
was publicity front-page headlines across the United States
welcoming the new states and congratulating them on their fine
qualities. Tourists, and even people with permanent residence
in mind, flocked in to see for themselves. The result was an
economic boomlet which added to the rosy glow of admission
to the United States on equal footing.

Tourism is still a major source of income for the new states,
but inevitably it has fallen somewhat from its post-statehood
peak. Of the two states, Alaska has the greater economic potential
by virtue of its vast size, its untapped resources, and its oppor-
tunities for expansion. Hawaii, a crowded if halcyon island
paradise, has a vexing land problem which admittedly hampers
development goals. Both states are attracting imaginative and
ambitious men, however, arid as far as both are concerned the
future trend should be bracingly upward.

This section contains three articles, two of which examine
the economies of Alaska and Hawaii in considerable detail. In
the first a financial analyst puts his mind to Alaska's economic
outlook and determines that, despite a number of weaknesses,
long-range prospects are favorable. The second article, from U.S.
News & World Report, emphasizes some of the economic difficul-
ties confronting the forty-ninth state three years after admission
to the Union. In the last article, a writer for Fortune draws a
lively and fascinating picture of Hawaii's golden era and of the
men and ideas that are shaping its future.

ALASKA'S ECONOMY: A SUMMATION l

The future progress of the economy and development of our
forty-ninth state is more difficult to chart than that of any other

1 Frorrt "Alaska: The Economic Outlook,'* by Ivan Block, director of a private
Industrial and economic consulting firm with interests in Alaska. Financial Analysts
Journal 16:31-42. Ja.-F. '60. Reprinted by permission.

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AHD HAWAII 145

state of the Union. This vast land area of almost 600,000 square
miles, with a present population of 220,000 people (of which
50,000 are military personnel), intrigues the imaginative inquirer
but baffles the rational analyst On the one hand, the lure of
the unknown brings visions of vast, untapped resources; on the
other, the hard facts of operating life in this last frontier often are
discouraging but to the venturesome.

Frontier development, historically, has reflected the same pat-
terns. If the breaching of the West had been left to the arith-
metic of its promises, as then visualized by the prudent analyst,
one might retrospectively conclude that nothing would have
happened: no railroads, no frontier towns, no mineral develop-
ment, no cutting of timber and plowing of virgin soils. To be
sure, the winning of the West as that yet to be achieved in
Alaska may have been an inefficient process, wasteful of men
and capital resources. However, in the balance, the eventual
total gains have been immeasurably large.

A realistic, hard-headed appraisal of Alaska's potentials can
lead to no assured conclusion of fact. For instance, merely look-
ing at the market potential in terms of less than a quarter of a
million population and that alone is simple and essentially
negative; there are dozens upon dozens of communities in the
more developed states which contain that much population
within a radius of a very few miles. However, if this population
is viewed in terms of its unsatisfied needs for goods and services
(relatively isolated from supply by distance and transportation
costs), in terms of high standards of living, and in terms of
specific and sometimes peculiar needs, the opportunity picture
comes into some focus.

As in the fruition of the West, natural resources furnish an
important even though not always clearly defined base. Again
the pattern for Alaska is repetitive of that historical for the West:
early accent on gold and precious metals, leading to exploitation
of base metals; opening operations in forests and lands, and
drilling of vast areas for oil and gas. However, it is necessary to
view Alaska in terms of its peculiarities, and less in terms of
example which might be sought elsewhere. For Alaska is unique
in spite of rationales to the contrary. If it resembles anything
familiar, perhaps the northern tier of the other forty-eight

144 THE REFERENCE SHELF

states provides some basis for comparison. Even there, the total
picture cannot be assembled from a few similarities.

Alaska's 586,400 square miles (almost 400 million acres, or
twice the area of Texas) contain a great variety of climatic and
physiographic features which, in some measure, bear upon the
nature of development. The Southeastern Panhandle, an archi-
pelago, is mountainous, heavily forested, and has a mild, wet
climate. Its tidal sweep, and its fjords have supported fisheries
for salmon and other species. The truly enormous forests are
feeding pulp and paper plants, with more to come. In this area
of scenic beauty although all of Alaska is breathtaking in its
vistas are located the state's capital city of Juneau, with a
population of 10,000, the communities of Ketchikan, Petersburg,
Wrangell and Sitka.

The Country's Terrain

The massive land body of Central Alaska itself divides into
distinguishable physiographic and climatic units. The Kenai
Peninsula and the Cook Inlet areas contain the rugged Kenai and
Chugach mountain ranges, with a gently sloping platform of
land bordering Cook Inlet itself. Anchorage, Alaska's largest city
(100,000) is located in a wide plain area bounded to its south
by the Chugach Range. North of Anchorage is the vast Susitna
River valley, bounded to the north by the Alaska Range. To the
east, is the Matanuska Valley, long known for its agricultural
lands and development. These areas have a moderate climate,
with reasonably cold winters, and warm summers. North of the
Alaska Range in which are located Mt. McKinley, Foraker and
other majestic peaks, is a vast plain in which flow the Yukon,
Kuskokwim, Tanana and their tributaries. Winters are quite
cold, with moderate snowfall, and summers are intensely hot

Fairbanks, Alaska's second largest city, is located in this plain,
which is bounded to the north by the Brooks Range which drains
into the Arctic Ocean. The Alaska Peninsula comprises very
large mountain ranges and large lakes. The Aleutian peninsula
is composed on an archipelago of relatively barren islands. Al-
though there are forests in most of the central area south of the
Arctic Circle, these have not yet been exploited for more than
local needs. Mineral activity in this entire area had a boom start
with the Alaska gold rush. Today, mining is sporadic and spotty,

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 147

with the emphasis on coal (of which Alaska is bountiful), sand
and gravel. Agriculture, oriented toward local consumption, is
concentrated in the Matanuska Valley, near Anchorage, and the
Xanana Valley near Fairbanks. Fisheries, a major contributor
to Alaska's economy, are operated in Southeast Alaska, the Prince
William Sound, the areas around Kodiak Island, Bristol Bay, and
other open-sea areas. Salmon, crab and shell fish are principal
commercial species.

Transportation Stresses Air

Transportation to and within Alaska has always been of im-
portance to the development of the state. The air age has been in-
timately connected with the daily activity of every part of Alaska.
Ten certified airlines place the state's communities within easy
reach of most cities "outside." It is only a quick four and a half
to five hours between Seattle and Anchorage and Fairbanks. New
York is fourteen hours away; Chicago not quite twelve hours;
and Los Angeles about ten hours. With coming jet travel, even
these short trips will be substantially reduced in time. In addi-
tion, a growing number of world airlines now utilize Anchorage
as a hub for transpolar air routes to Europe and the Far East,
and Fairbanks is likely to share this position also. The Alaskan
has been weaned on the airplane. Outside of numerous cer-
tified airlines serving all sections of Alaska, and ubiquitous
charter operations, the number of privately owned aircraft is
greater in Alaska than anywhere else in the world. Air freight
moves intra- and inter-Alaska in enormous, growing quantities.

Waterborne commerce is of extreme importance. The pioneer
steamship services of Alaska Steamship Company has been sup-
plemented with numerous tug-barge operations on a frequent and
scheduled basis from Puget Sound, Columbia River and Cali-
fornia coastal points. Good harbors are found in nearly all coast-
al parts of Alaska. Panhandle communities all have deep-draft
harbors. The Prince William Sound area has all-year, deep-draft
ports at Cordova, Valdez, Seward and Whittier, the last two also
serving the Alaska Railroad. . . .

The Alaska Highway provides the sole overland motor route
to and from Alaska. Considerable all-year traffic exists on this
highway, including growing truck movements. The portion in

148 THE REFERENCE SHELF

Alaska is excellent, whereas the Canadian graveled section
1,200 milesremains to be paved. Within the new state are
only 5,100 miles of roads, of which about 2,000 are paved. About
two thirds of the total mileage is open to all-year traffic.

No rail facilities exist between Alaska, Canada, and the main-
land states. . . . Studies are now under way by the United States
Alaska International Rail and Highway Commission to reinvesti-
gate the possibilities of rail system which would link Alaska with
West Coast points. Whether the Pacific Great Eastern, which
intersects the transcontinental Canadian National line, 400 miles
eastward of Prince Rupert on the Pacific Coast, will be extended
further, or whether the Wenner-Gren project on the upper Peace
River in northern British Columbia will include a rail link is not
yet clear. However, whatever rail route is extended, its Alaskan
terminus is most likely to be Fairbanks, the northernmost com-
munity served by the Alaska Railroad. This 500-mile federally
operated and fully modern facility, extends southward from
Fairbanks to the Matanuska Valley, to Anchorage and thence to
the Prince William all-year ports of Whittier and Seward.

It is on the Alaska Railroad "Railbelt" that most of Alaska's
population is concentrated. Fairbanks, about 125 miles south of
the Arctic Circle, has a population of around 50,000. Anchorage
and its immediate environs has grown from a mere tent city in
1915 to a modern metropolis of some 100,000. . . .

Indices of Economic Development

The population of Alaska has been increasing quite rapidly.
From around 70,000 in 1940, the present [1960] total is in excess
of 220,000, of wliich around 50,000 are military personnel. Dur-
ing the period 1951-52, a sharp increase of almost 32 per cent in
total number of military personnel was accompanied by an in-
crease of close to 15 per cent in civilian population. While the
majority of these new civilians are, in theory, only temporary
residents brought by the demands for construction workers in
military and defense installations (as for the famous DEW line
[Distant Early Warning line of arctic radar stations] and White
Alice [a communications system that transmits messages over
North America] projects), a large portion remains to swell what
might be termed "stable" or "normal" population. This stable

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AN HAWAII 149

population has been steadily Increasing year after year, in spite
of the seasonal swings which coincide with construction and
resources-based activity.

Although it is very difficult to forecast the possible growth of
population of the new state, it is likely to continue at an annual
total rate ranging between 6 ... [and] 8 per cent (as contrasted
to around 1.6 per cent for the United States). Thus, in 1975, it is
likely that Alaska may contain around 750,000 persons, depend-
ing on the tempo of development of certain primary industries
and the anticipated rate of decrease in total military personnel.

Youthful State

A characteristic of Alaska's population is its youth. In 1950,
the United States Census data showed a median age for Alaska
of 25.8, whereas that in the United States was 30.1 It appears
this disparity continues. Alaska's birth rate per 1,000 population
has been steadily increasing: from 23.2 in 1945 to 37.0 in 1956,
as contrasted to 19.6 and 25.2 respectively for the United States.
Similarly, the Alaska death rate has been substantially under
that of the United States, and has been dropping even more
rapidly each succeeding year.

The youthful character of Alaska's population reflects itself,
obviously, in school enrollment in public primary and secondary
systems. Excluding students in Alaska Native Service schools,
and the few private institutions, in 1940 there were only 6,312
enrollments. This has grown in rapid fashion: 13,909 in 1950,
and 35,888 in 1957

The gross volume of business also has shown consistent up-
ward gains, more than doubling during the past seven years.
. . . Similarly, banking activity has shown remarkably continu-
ous growth. Another significant index of development is found
in the continuing rise in airline passenger and freight tranporta-
tion inter- and intra-Alaska for certified airmail carriers.

A few other examples can be cited to demonstrate growth.
During the period 1947-1957, the number of passenger auto-
mobile registrations increased more than sevenfold, from slightly
over 7,000 to almost 50,000. Truck registries jumped similarly
from about 4,000 to over 17,000. Telephone connections (the
majority being in the major cities of Anchorage, Fairbanks,
Juneau) increased from 11,000 to over 30,000.

15 THE REFERENCE SHELF

Defense Is Key

The Alaska economy of today is heavily oriented to defense
activities. The strategic position of the new state has been re-
flected in enormous construction of military projects: air fields
and their bases; radar and communications systems (as indicated
before, comprising the DEW line and White Alice projects) ; na-
val bases; and more recently, the emergence of ballistic missile
detection, interception and launching facilities. Although pre-
cise data on defense expenditures and size of personnel are obvi-
ously "classified," it is possible to indicate a total defense ex-
penditure of around $800 million for the period 1950-1957. This
can be compared to estimates of the production of Alaska's
primary industries for the same period of time: fisheries, $676
million; minerals, $190 million; forest products, $116 million;
furs, $47 million; agriculture, $25 million; or a total production
of $1,054 million.

The predominant position of the defense establishment and
its corollary activities is reflected in the pattern of Alaska's em-
ployment Considering military personnel as employed in a
primary industry with a total of 64,100, about 47,000 are in
military categories and only 17,100 in construction, mining,
lumber and pulp, hunting and fishing, food processing and other
primary manufacturing. Most of the 5,863 employed in con-
struction are directly related to military activity. (These data
represent reported monthly average employment for 1957.) . . .

The dependence of Alaska's economy on defense considera-
tions has always been a matter of considerable discussion in
attempts to visualize the state's future development. The pessi-
mistic view such an economy as tenuous and pose the ques-
tion "What would happen if the military were to pull out of
Alaska?" Those contrary-minded scoff that Alaska's position in
world strategy is too important to admit that such a possibility
is remotely in sight. The fact remains that each shift in defense
technology has caused heavy activity in Alaska, with conse-
quently high rates of expenditures for construction and the
establishment of ancillary facilities. Even though there are
shifts in the types of defense establishment (such as entailing
lesser dollar-value expenditures for the construction of facilities
but greater values in the types of equipment established), it

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 151

can be argued that the net effect on the total economy will
remain on a sort of plateau, i.e., that if there are reductions
in the value of direct military construction, the shift to highly
expert and trained technologists to man the new installations
will result in the construction of better housing and related
facilities and the employment of higher-income personnel.

One is impressed, however, with the general observation that
the pattern of Alaska's development is somewhat similar to that
which historically took place in the early days of the western
frontier. The establishment of military outposts and garrisons
in the 1800's was soon followed by the development of rudi-
mentary service economies, and the rapid exploitation of neigh-
boring natural resources. So in Alaska, the defense economy
base has stimulated and enhanced the growth of ancillary
primary and service industries. . . .

Even though much of Alaska's economy might be character-
ized as "taking each other's washing," consolidation and diversi-
fication is becoming increasingly evident. A nondefense-oriented
economic base is taking shape, principally (and again follow-
ing traditional patterns of western expanision) in the field of
natural resources development, supplemented by the exploita-
tion of Alaska's global transportation position and the expan-
sion of its service establishments.

Resources Development

It is easy to talk of Alaska's "vast untapped resources" but
it is not so simple to be precise as to their elements for poten-
tial development. This is particularly true with regard to most
of its minerals which, although very varied as to their kinds,
are widely scattered throughout the immense area of the state,
and more usually than not, isolated from consumptive markets
by rugged terrain and long distances. If one could generalize
as to the controlling elements of resources exploitation in Alaska,
one might summarize the situation somewhat as follows:

1. Present local markets (i.e., oriented to Alaska's population
and its demands) can support small units of production in agri-
culture, some construction materials, and in fuels and electric
power.

2. Markets along the U.S. West Coast and elsewhere in the
other states are and will be shaped by the uniqueness of the

152 THE REFERENCE SHELF

specific Alaskan resource, and the economics of its location (i.e.,
with regard to lowest cost transportation) .

3. The natural resources requirements of Japan and perhaps
other Far Eastern nations present an unusual opportunity for
Alaskan resources development.

4 The strategic world location of Alaska with regard to
transpolar air and sea and even possibly overland routes may
have profound eventual implications on its development of fuel
resources.

Outside of fisheries (which are plagued with vexing problems
of resources management), the forests of Alaska are the present
source of major-scale resources development. . . .

In contrast to the development of the Alaskan forest industry
which is oriented to consumer demands of the United States and
Japan, the rendition of value from Alaska's agricultural lands
rests upon the needs of local population for certain food products
which these lands are capable of producing. ... Of a total
of around 3 million acres believed to be suitable in all of Alaska
for agriculture by virtue of soil characteristics and climatic con-
ditions, only about 20,000 acres are now under cultivation. The
intensity of the short growing season (long hours of warm sun-
shine) make possible very high yields of such root crops as
potatoes, carrots, turnips and beets; leafy vegetables as cab-
bage and broccoli in the Matanuska Valley; various cereal crops
as wheat, barley, rye in the Tanana Valley. Dairying activity is
particularly well established in the Matanuska Valley. Kodialc
and some portions of the Aleutians are noted for the initial pro-
duction of some beef and sheep. The products of this agricul-
tural activity are consumed locally and in 1957 were valued
at slightly under $5 million. . . . The winning of land is ex-
pensive: the clearing of forest and brush cover from lands other-
wise suited for agriculture has been accomplished on a piece-
meal basis at very high per- acre costs. . . . Transportation costs
on agricultural products provide both a curse and a blessing:
on the one hand, the price of certain feeds, of fertilizer and
weedicides is high; on the other, freight rates on food com-
modities from the rest of the United States offer an "umbrella"
for the local Alaskan producer. . . .

THi NEW STATES: ALASKA AHP HAWAII 153

Tapping Mineral Resources

Although certain mineral resources are known to exist in sub-
stantial quantities, the vastness of the new state as yet obscures
their extent. It is probable that with the extension of roads and
highways, and a greater degree of continuous exploration utiliz-
ing modern geophysical methods important new discoveries may
be made of commercial minerals. One must remark, however,
that Alaska has been extensively examined geologically, and
that the known variety of mineral occurrences does not neces-
sarily connote commercial quantities.

The gold mining industry of Alaska, in past years, was a
major activity. However, of total 1957 mineral production of
close to $30 million, sand and gravel, and coal mining now
account for equally important values of production, and mercury
ranks among major contributors to total value. . . .

Best known of Alaska's mineral resources, and which sus-
tain substantial production year after year, are its coal reserves.
. . . The processing of Alaska's major coal resources (estimated
substantially in excess of 100 billion tons) offers some interest-
ing, but as yet speculative avenues of approach. For example,
the scale of coal mining in the Nenana coal fields about one
hundred miles south of Fairbanks on the Alaska Railroad is
likely to range between 500,000 to 750,000 tons in the foresee-
able future. . . . The vast arctic coal reserves may become im-
portant to world markets if the proposed harbor on the Arctic
Ocean to be constructed through the use of nuclear explosives
(Operations Plowshare) becomes reality. . . .

Search for Oil

Of greatest interest in very recent years has been the discovery
of what appears to be commercial quantities of oil and possibly
natural gas in certain areas of Alaska. Geological authorities
deem a large portion of Alaska as "including rocks that theoretic-
ally could contain oil deposits." Exploration and land leasing
have been at fever-pitch during the past five years, in such as
the Kenai Peninsula, the Alaskan Peninsula and Bristol Bay
areas, along portions of Prince William Sound, in the enor-
mous interior areas of the Yukon and Kuskokwim basins, and
north of the Brooks Range along the arctic drainages beyond

154 THE REFERENCE SHELF

the Arctic Circle. In common with oil and gas exploration, specu-
lation has moved through cycles of extreme optimism, rank
discouragement, and again back to considerable hopes that
producing areas can be found ...

The Alaskan oil situation has brought forth activity in ex-
ploration and drilling by virtually every major company and
many others. California Standard, Richfield, Phillips, Humble,
Union of California, Ohio, Sunray Mid-Continent, General
Petroleum, Shell, and many others have established exploratory
operations in many sections of the state. Similarly, geophysical
exploration companies, drilling, and various other types of sup-
porting firms have established quarters in major communities
of central, western and northern Alaska. It is estimated that
in Anchorage alone, these activities have brought forth a payroll
of at least $3.5 million a year. The possibilities of expansion
are highlighted by the recent announcement by California
Standard that it will drill additional wells in the Kenai Penin-
sula and continue exploration at a total cost for 1960 of $3
million. Similarly, late in the fall of 1959, Richfield received
approval by the Federal Government for a major exploration
program for oil and gas over approximately 1 million acres in
the Katalla-Yakataga area on the Gulf of Alaska. . . .

Natural gas reserves are also the scene of considerable ex-
ploration and drilling activity. Definitive statements as to pos-
sible reserves and commercial quantities have not yet been
made by responsible oil companies. However, Union has entered
into a contract with the Anchorage Natural Gas Company which
obtained a distribution franchise in Anchorage in the fall of
1959. This would necessitate a pipeline from the Kenai fields
to Anchorage, a distance of one hundred miles. Other potential
fields extend along the Cook Inlet and the upper Matanuska
and lower Susitna valleys near Anchorage, and in the far reaches
of the Arctic Slopes several hundreds of miles north of Fairbanks.

There has been considerable speculation with regard to the
establishment of petrochemical industries in Alaska based on
prospective natural gas and oil production. If such chemical
units become feasible, it is most likely that these will be ori-
ented with regard to Japanese markets principally, with local
and West Coast outlets depending on competitive factors which
as yet cannot be stated with certainty.

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 155

Vast Hydroelectric Power

The resources briefly outlined in the foregoing are exhaustible
in nature. By comparison, Alaska's hydroelectric potential from
its lakes and streams is inexhaustible. Various estimates have
been made regarding this potential. Most informed sources in-
dicate a possible development of at least 20 million kilowatts
of installed capacity. Development to date has been meager
and in relatively small sites such as Eklutna (30,000 kilowatts)
of the United States Bureau of Reclamation near Anchorage,
Cooper Lake (15,000 kilowatts under final stages of construction)
by the Chugach Electric Association of Anchorage, and numer-
ous smaller plants in southeastern Alaska

Some truly giant projects have been under various stages
of preliminary investigation throughout Alaska. One of the most
impressive in terms of potential capacity at very low cost per
kilowatt-hour is the Taiya project near Haines. This would
involve the diversion of headwaters of the Yukon River in Canada
to a power plant with a capacity of around 2 million kilowatts
in coastal Alaska. Another enormous project entails two dams
on the Copper River. The Wood Canyon and Peninsula Projects
would also have a possible capacity of 2 million kilowatts.
However, the largest of all entails a tremendous dam and a
reservoir having an area surpassing that of Lake Erie on the
Yukon River, some 120 miles northwest of Fairbanks. The Ram-
part Project, on which initial studies are to begin, would have a
generating capacity well in excess of 4 million kilowatts. These
very large projects, ranking among the world's biggest, will re-
quire many years for investigation, engineering and eventual
construction. . . .

In the cursory sketch of natural resources development dis-
cussed in the foregoing, it becomes apparent that this will en-
tail extremely large sums of money. Both public and private
funds will have to be utilized. In power development, to date,
with one or two very minor exceptions, financing has been ac-
complished either through the issuance of municipal revenue
bonds or through loans to local rural electric cooperative asso-
ciations by the United States Rural Electrification Administra-
tion. The very large hydroelectric projects will require very
long-term financing at lowest interest rates. Presumably these

THE REFERENCE SHELF

can be financed only by the Federal Government on traditional
repayment bases. Private power development has made no prog-
ress in Alaska to this time. Oil and gas exploitation, as well
as that for coal and other mineral resources, has been largely by
private means save for some basic exploration by Federal and
formerly territorial, now state, agencies.

The place of the Japanese market and of Japanese-based
investment has been alluded to in prior discussion. The interest
of Japan in Alaska is extremely active, and the Alaskans view
Japan as a major market opportunity. As a consequence, plan-
ning for industrial production or for industrial sales must give
weight to this situation. Japan's interest in tapping Alaska's
resources is already evidenced by the establishment of the Sitka
cellulose pulp operation. Similarly, Japanese geologists and engi-
neers are steadfastly exploring other resources, notably coal
and oil. . . .

In contrast to resources development which appears poten-
tially important for national and world markets, except as
specifically indicated in the foregoing as for agriculture^ the de-
velopment of manufacturing in Alaska can be viewed in terms
of meeting local needs. As pointed out, the total present Alaskan
consuming market is measured in terms of its present popula-
tion of 220,000, and its estimated growth to 750,000 by 1975.
Of this total market, about two thirds is in the Railroad Belt
including the cities of Anchorage and Fairbanks and their en-
virons. Even if one modifies the estimate in terms of high per-
sonal income, the total purchasing power is still quite small as
compared with even moderately sized communities in the rest
of the United States. However, and this is the difference which
bears consideration, the Alaska market is a "captive" of distance
and high transportation costs and is isolated from competitive
producing centers of manufactured products. . . .

Tourism

One vast area of growing importance entails the outstanding
recreational assets of Alaska. The superlative grandeur of Alas-
ka's scenic vistas, its almost unlimited opportunities for all types
of outdoor recreation have been well publicized. However, and
candor must prevail, the size and characteristics of accommoda-

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 157

tions and facilities do not begin to be adequate for the tourist
potential at hand. This does not imply there are no good facili-
ties in Alaska; on the contrary, some of the hotels and motels
(including some now under construction) are comparable to
better ones "outside." The fact remains that the number and
locations are inadequate, and until more attention is given to
the^ problem, the full recreational potential of Alaska will re-
main dormant. It has been said, by apologists for the situation,
that the seasonal character of Alaska's recreational potential
presents an insurmountable obstacle to full development. Actu-
ally, no serious attempts have yet been made to develop the
year-round opportunities, ranging . . . [the] gamut of winter
sports (including cross-country skiing, dogsledding with well-
organized hut and lodge facilities), of hiking, mountain climb-
ing and camping, of fishing and hunting and wildlife observa-
tion. . . .

With increasing ease of rapid transportation by jet, Alaska's
innumerable recreational assets will become accessible to thou-
sands of distant visitors from all parts of the United States, and,
by means of the transpolar route, of the world. What is needed
is a series of planned and integrated rental or charter transpor-
tation services from major airports to lakes, streams and moun-
tain areas in which should be established adequate lodging and
eating facilities. A breakthrough by a well organized and
financed group in this field is a matter of time, and would be
the precursor of substantial similar developments as are taking
place elsewhere in the world, as in the Andes, Australia and
New Zealand, not to mention European areas,

Business Operating Conditions

Doing business in Alaska is not greatly more difficult or
complicated than elsewhere in the United States. To be certain,
there are some differences which essentially relate to the estab-
lishment rather than operation of enterprises. The climatic
hazards are no greater than those obtaining in the northern tier
of states. Transportation by air between Alaskan communities
is frequent and reliable, as it is with the "outside." Telephone
service, especially to other parts of the United States, is excellent
although expensive. The shipping of freight by water is time-

15g THE REFERENCE SHELF

consuming and, by and large, expensive due to present lack of
back-haul. However, it is not an insurmountable obstacle to
most business operations.

High Cost of Living

The cost of living in Alaska is high, and artificially so. ...
As might be expected, wage rates are also high although in
some categories they are comparable to those which prevail
in New York City. Skilled office help is reasonably available;
more often than not, permanent commercial establishments draw
upon Federal employees wishing to change occupational ^ status.
Rentals of office and commercial space are high but, with the
increasing number of good, modern office buildings, the situa-
tion should become ameliorated. With increasing diversification
of enterprise, both quantity and quality of personnel and physi-
cal facilities are improving year after year. . . .

The new state's government, in common with its citizens,
is even more industry and business-development conscious
than most older states. The inquiring industrialist, or business-
man, will find the atmosphere conducive to negotiation and
discussion. As evidence of this desire to provide all possible
incentives to development, on March 29, 1957, the territorial
legislature passed comprehensive legislation to facilitate such
development The act ... enunciates policies and mechanisms
for temporary industrial tax incentives which are extremely
liberal even though subject to administration and review by a
Board and Director of Industrial Tax Exemption. Designated
industrial and commercial operations are exempt from income
tax upon industrial development income derived during ten
years following commencement of operations. Similarly, such
exempted businesses are not subject to any license fees, excise
or other taxes for a period of ten years except contributions to the
Alaska Unemployment Compensation Fund. The property of
such businesses . . . [is] also exempted from all taxes (save Fed-
eral of course) for periods of years adjusted to the size of the in-
vestments. For example, the period of exemption is five years
for investment in real or personal property under $1 million,
but ten years when such investment exceeds $10 million. . .

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 159

Under the United States Congress "Alaska Omnibus Bill" of
1959, Alaska is made eligible to participate in a number of
Federal grants-in-aid programs on a comparable basis with
other states. It also terminates certain special Federal programs
in the new state, and authorizes measures for the orderly transi-
tion from territorial to state organization and operations. It
clarifies the applicability or inapplicability of certain laws to
Alaska. Certain transitional aids are provided to the new state
amounting to $28.5 million during the next five years, . . .

ALASKA'S ECONOMIC PROBLEMS 2

A lot of Alaskans are having second thoughts about statehood
now that the bills are coming in.

The jubilation that greeted the birth of this forty-ninth state
a little more than three years ago has turned, in many instances,
to disillusionment. After nearly one hundred years as a ward
of the Federal Government, Alaska has not found the transition
from territory to state to be easy.

"Alaska," says its governor, William A. Egan, "is beset by
problems as awesome as its geography."

Some of these problems are just coming to the surface. Others
have been evident for years. They include:

Deep cutbacks in military spending in Alaska, with a re-
sultant drop in incomes in some areas of the state.

Unexpectedly high costs of state government, coupled with
widespread complaints of a growing bureaucracy.

Steadily rising taxes, including cigarette, gasoline and liquor
taxes that are among the highest in any state.

Depressed condition of some of Alaska's traditional industries,
such as gold mining, agriculture, fishing and coal mining.

Lack of investment capital to develop new industries which
Alaskans believe are the hope of the future.

These major problems, and other lesser ones, are hampering
the efforts of Alaskans to give this country's largest state a
land bursting with natural resources a self-supporting economy.

Despite these handicaps, some residents of this infant state
point to developments on the less gloomy side. Among these are:

From 'The 49th State Three Years Later." C7.S. News & World Report. 52:65-8.
Mr 19, '62. Reprinted from U.S. News & World Report, published at Washington.
Copyright 1962 U.S. News & World Report, Inc.

160 THE REFERENCE SHELF

New discoveries of oil that have spurred major oil com-
panies to intensified exploration and drilling.

Beginnings of trade with Japan that could provide Alaska
with an overseas market easily accessible by water.

Improvement of sea and air transportation that could bring
an influx of tourists loaded with dollars to spend.

Prospect of cheap electric power if proposed hydroelectric
facilities for central Alaska are built by the United States Gov-
ernment, providing a lure for industries.

Vast riches in natural resources in the interior areas that
have scarcely been touched.

Alaskans who look at this bright side of the coin say:
"Don't sell us short."

A major source of Alaska's troubles has been the sharp drop
in Federal defense spending here. Military construction in the
year to end June 30 [1962] will be down to about $38 million
40 per cent of last year's volume when the big radar station
at Clear, a $250 million project, was being built.

Government spending normally provides about 50 per cent
of Alaska's income. Of this, 40 per cent comes from the Fed-
eral Government. So the cutbacks are widening the gap be-
tween the state's income and its spending. . . .

Other factors are involved, too. The number of insured work-
ers employed on heavy construction projects, most of them mili-
tary, dropped from a peak of 10,500 in 1951 to 5,500 in mid- 1961.

Big military spending and a short building season have
combined to give Alaska a high wage structure. Plumbers get
$5.40 an hour, electricians $5.75. Often they work sixty or
seventy hours a week.

But high seasonal wages and lack of year-round jobs hurt
the economy and lead to high prices. Last year, unemployment
in Alaska averaged 12 per cent about twice the national rate.
At winter's peak, in February, unemployment climbs to 50 per
cent in some areas.

Prices in Anchorage, a Government survey disclosed, are 27
per cent higher than in Seattle, and prices in Fairbanks are 36
per cent higher. In Anchorage, a haircut costs $2.50, half soles
for shoes are $4.50, and milk is 45 cents a quart. In Juneau,
eggs are $1.06 a dozen.

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AMD HAWAII 161

House-heating costs in central and western Alaska, where
winters are long and temperatures range to 75 below zero, are
$75 a month or more.

New cars cost $400 to $500 more than in the Pacific Coast
states. There are extra expenses, also, for heavy-duty batteries
and heaters to keep engines warm overnight

Alaska grows only 8 per cent of the food it consumes. All
the rest must be brought in, along with practically all consumer
goods, at high freight rates.

High wages and prices are an obstacle to development when
the cost-plus-fixed-fee clause of military contracts does not apply.
Many firms compare Alaskan costs and prices with those else-
where in the United States and decide against investing.

Alaska, in the last three years, has had to set up an entirely
new state government. This has generated other problems.

The division of highways had to take over administration of
the multimillion-dollar Federal highway program. The depart-
ment of fish and game now manages Alaska's abundant wild-
life resources. The division of lands now administers the 104
million acres which the state eventually will take over from
the Federal Government. Prior to statehood, 98 per cent of
Alaska's land was still under Federal ownership. Also, a state
judicial system had to be established.

All these new state agencies cost money. This has resulted
in soaring taxes and much grumbling about the way things
are run.

The number of state employees has reached nearly 4,000,
compared with the 750 employed when Alaska was a territory.

State budgets have gone up as services have expanded. The
last territorial budget was about $18 million. State budgets have
been $33.3 million in 1959-60; $46.5 million in 1960-61; $55.7
million in 1961-62, and $70.4 million proposed for 1962-63,
plus $7.9 million in supplemental appropriations for the current
[1961-62] year.

The Federal Government granted Alaska a "dowry" of $30
million to aid in transition from territory to state. But, after
the state gets $2.4 million in each of the next two fiscal years,
this fund will be exhausted. . . .

To many Alaskans, the tax bite under statehood comes as
a shock. Taxes were increased last year to raise an extra $3.6

!62 THE REFERENCE SHELF

million. For individuals, the state income tax went up from 14
per cent to 16 per cent of the Federal income tax paid.

The tax on gasoline is 8 cents a gallon; on cigarettes, 8 cents
a pack; on liquor, $4 a gallon. There is no state sales tax, but a
$10-a-year school tax applies to all aged nineteen to sixty.

Despite tax increases, Alaska ranks relatively low among the
fifty states in the amount of taxes paid by the average resident
per dollar of personal income.

Because of high prices, it takes a $10,000 income to buy the
same goods and services that a $7,500 income will buy in Seattle.
But Alaskan incomes are about one fifth above the United
States average.

Layoffs in military construction have added to the unem-
ployment problem created by unhealthy conditions in some of
Alaska's traditional industries.

Since the peak of employment in 1955, jobs have leveled off.
In some areas, there has been a drop. The construction workers'
union once had 3,300 members. Now there are 900.

Gold mining, once very important, is declining steadily. It
is increasingly difficult to cover costs and make a profit at the
fixed price of $35 an ounce paid by the United States Treasury.

Agriculture has been a disappointment. Only 25,000 acres
out of 1 million rated suitable for farming are under cultivation.

Coal mining has not expanded. Most of the coal mined in
the state is used for power generation at military bases.

Fishing, however, appears to be making a comeback after
years of decline due to mismanagement and overexploitation.
The salmon run of 1961 ranked with the best of thirty years ago,
when salmon was Alaska's mainstay.

Alaska is one in name only. It has a tremendous diversity
of terrain, climate and resources, spread out over 586,400 square
miles- nearly one fifth the size of the rest of the continental
United States.

The "panhandle" of southeast Alaska has few people, no
access by road, cool summers, and winters only slightly colder
than those on Puget Sound. Central Alaska, where the bulk of
the population is, can go from 75 degrees below zero to 100
above. The "ice block" nearly 50 per cent of the state that is
mostly frozen tundra, as deep as two hundred feet is of little
use commercially.

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 163

Clashes of interest accentuate these differences. Says an
Anchorage businessman: "Southeast Alaska is 180 degrees differ-
ent from us. They have the seafood, forest industries and export;
we only have the military. They're inaccessible by road. We're
tied to the world's three largest cities New York, London and
Tokyo by nonstop air service."

Despite all these problems, however, many Alaskans believe
their state government will be more flexible, more responsive to
changing conditions and to the wishes of its residents, than an
"absentee landlord" five thousand miles away in Washington,
D.C.

One of the most hopeful developments in recent years if not
in Alaska's history was the discovery of oil on the Kenai
Peninsula in July 1957.

Already, a pipeline has been built to nearby Cook Inlet,
where terminal facilities have been installed to load the oil on
tankers. In its first year of operation, 5.5 million barrels of crude
oil moved through the terminal.

A $10 million refinery is now being built to provide petroleum
products for the Alaskan market.

More important, the Kenai discovery may be just a beginning.
All geological signposts indicate that Alaska could become this
country's top oil-producing state. It now ranks nineteenth among
thirty-one oil-producing states.

The search for oil has been speeded by a more liberal leasing
policy. Previously, Congress permitted only 300,000 acres of
federally owned land to be leased to any one company or
individual. This rule has been changed to permit leasing of
300,000 acres of United States-owned land in the northern part
of the state and 300,000 acres in the southern part. The state
allows 500,000-acre leases on land it owns.

At present, 16,000 exploration leases are in effect, covering
35 million acres. These leases cover less than half of the 80
million acres considered to be potential petroleum sources.

Even though oil is in its infancy in Alaska, it is already
proving a major source of income. Last December, competitive
bidding on oil leases brought in $15 millon about twice as much
as had been anticipated. One firm alone paid $7,296,000 for
leases $96,000 more than the United States paid to Russia for
the entire state of Alaska.

U4 THi REFERENCE SHELF

A second industry that Alaskans believe has a big potential
Is the tourist trade. Alaska has some of the most spectacular
scenery in the world, and is a paradise for fishermen and
hunters.

One big obstacle to a tourist boom is the difficulty of getting
to Alaska. The only way to get there by road is over the Alaska
Highway. This road is still unpaved on the Canadian side; it is
dusty in summer and muddy in winter.

Beginning later this year, however, there will be an alternate
route to Alaska. Motorists will be able to drive from the United
States to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, and there take a
ferry north through the scenic island passage to Haines, Alaska.
From there, highways lead to Anchorage and Fairbanks, in
central Alaska.

The idea is to provide a "loop" trip, going one way by the
new automobile ferry and returning by way of the Alaska High-
way.

Sea and air transportation to Alaska are improving rapidly.
More rail and shipping lines are going into the rail-barge busi-
ness. New jet-plane service has put Juneau within two hours of
Seattle.

Over-the-Pole flights from Europe to and from the Orient stop
in Alaska. Airport runways at Anchorage and Fairbanks have
been extended to handle jets, and terminals are being improved.

About 16,000 transpolar passengers a month pass through
Anchorage. There are as many as 60 international flights weekly.
Development of Alaska as a center for international air travel is
expected to stimulate the flow of tourists.

While oil and tourism seem to be the best bets now, two
other things could prove to be even more significant over the long
pull.

One possibility is increased trade with Japan. The other is
an ambitious Federal project to provide Alaska with abundant,
cheap hydroelectric power, which is now lacking. . . .

Already, Japan has poured $150 million into Alaska's forest
industry. Alaska has 137 million acres of timber offering 2 mil-
lion board feet annually on a sustained-yield basis. Only a
small fraction of this is being utilized.

In mid- 1960, a new pulp mill began operating near Sitka.
It was financed by Japanese interests with the help of American

THE NEW STATIS: ALASKA AND HAWAII 165

investment bankers. It supplies pulp to Japan's rayon industry.

Japan's investment in timber may be just a beginning. The
Japanese have affirmed their interest in oil, liquefied natural gas,
coal, iron ore, copper and other minerals. It appears wholly
possible that Japanese capital, rather than American, may provide
the key that will unlock Alaska's vast mineral storehouse.

To develop these resources, Alaska's interior is going to have
to be opened up. So inaccessible are many areas that even today
the state does not know the extent of its mineral wealth. Prac-
tically all known minerals have been found within the state
silver, gold, lead, zinc, copper, mercury, antimony, platinum,
chromium, nickel, iron ore, molybdenum and tungsten.

"We have no regrets about statehood," says a labor leader.
"All we need is a little more Federal help." There are many
who disagree with this view, who say statehood came too scon
and with too little preparation.

Alaskans who view the future more as a challenge than a
promise point to Scandinavia, on the opposite side of the world.
It has a similar geographical location, yet 20 million people live
there and have the highest living standard in the world outside
the United States.

These Alaskans add: "Russia would give anything to have us
back. Then where would the United States be?"

HAWAII'S ECONOMY: PROSPECTS AND PROBLEMS s

The first inkling of what impended was an earthquake. The
green sea of sugar cane rolled violently under the repeated
shocks, then seemed to surge forward upon the doomed village
of Kapoho, engulfing it in leafy billows. By dusk, lava fountains
were roaring from the cloven earth and a river of incandescent
rock drove toward the Pacific, firing the plots of papaya, coffee,
and orchids along the way. By dawn the beginnings of a great
gray cone had been thrust above the charred plain. "Fire bombs"
arched from it into a sky already aflame with red-hot cinders;
the first of thousands of fish would soon be dead in the scalding
waters offshore; and from deep within the Hawaiian earth were
coming the lavas that would put Kapoho to the torch and bury

8 From "Hawaii's A-PoppinY* by Richard Austin Smith, a Fortune magazine con-
tributor. Fortune. 61:124-384-- Je. '60. Reprinted from the June 1960 issue of Fortune
Magazine by Special Permission; I960 Time Inc.

166 THE REFERENCE SHELF

its ashes under many feet of molten rock. Hawaii, the nation's
newest state, had begun the 1960's with terrifying evidence that,
geologically at least, it was still very much on the make. One
day Pele, the goddess of the volcanoes, may raise a whole new
island out of the sea in just the way she raised the cone of
Kapoho out of the sugar-cane fields.

Meanwhile, the new state has been undergoing profound
social, economic, and political changes, some of them more im-
portant and only slightly less intense than the spectacle at
Kapoho. These changes beneath the tranquil surface of the
Islands may escape the attention of casual visitors and even of
careful students of statistics. No dry figure on proportional repre-
sentation, for instance, could express the pride of Hawaii's
citizens of Chinese ancestry, many the descendants of coolie
laborers, at Hiram Pong's becoming the first person of Oriental
parentage ever to sit in the United States Senate. And Henry
Kaisers coming to Hawaii six years ago is, in mathematical lingo,
far down in the order of smalls; yet this increment of one to the
Islands* population has stood the cement industry on its head
and forced the airlines, the hotel owners, and the real-estate
developers to break into a sprint lest they be run down by the
cartwheeling septuagenarian. The bare figures of booming land
prices (this April one parcel between downtown Honolulu and
Waikiki was worth $22.50 per square foot, ten times the 1954
valuation) give only a hint of Hawaii's increasingly explosive
land situation. With landownership still concentrated in very
few hands (four estates possess a whopping 40.5 per cent of
Oahu's total acreage), demand is building up as never before,
and with it political pressure in the legislature to force more
land onto the market, through either heavier taxation or state
purchase and resale. No toting up of Hawaii's bank deposits,
which jumped from $563 million in January 1959 to $669 million
in January 1960, suggests the virtual revolution the Islands have
undergone in money matters. "We've had to teach our Oriental
citizens that banks are sound and profitable places for the cash
they're used to keeping in tin cans and under mattresses," said
Rudolph Peterson of the Bank of Hawaii. "The Chinese expect
their money to move fast The Filipinos don't like the idea of
having what they own just coming down to some figures in a
passbook: they want their wealth where they can handle it.

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 167

There's no way to get to them except by word of mouth, so we
have a Filipino officer of the bank go out in the cane fields and
hold a sort of medicine show or camp meeting to get them to
open accounts." The results, he added, are often startling:
One man came in afterward with an oilskin money belt
wrapped three times around him. He dropped his trousers to
the knees right out on the banking floor getting the thing off, but
in it was $17,000. Forty to 50 per cent of our new deposits come
from God knows where mattresses, tin cans, holes in the ground,
under the floor boards."

In the broadest sense, the changes in Hawaii can be epito-
mized in the single word statehood. That one event, plus the
millions of dollars in free advertising that attended it, brought
tourists in unprecedented numbers. Some 243,000 came in 1959,
41 per cent above the 1958 total, and the record $101 million
they spent in the Islands provided new horizons for the tourist
business. First-quarter arrivals indicated that 1960 had the
makings of an even bigger year for tourism: it topped the com-
parable months of 1959 by 30 per cent The First National
Bank of Hawaii (until this April the Bishop National) predicted
that the number of visitors would reach a million by 1970, almost
two million a year in the eighties. The rival Bank of Hawaii
predicted tourism would pass the $131 million sugar industry as
a major dollar earner by 1963 or 1964. But tourism aside, some
of the changes have been long in the making and were merely
precipitated or brought into sharp focus after Hawaii joined the
Union. Others are as new as statehood itself.

The ABC's of the Fiftieth State

There are some important facts that a tourist might absorb
in a fortnight of footing it around the Islands. Situated 2,400
miles southwest of San Francisco and some 3,800 miles southeast
of Tokyo, the fiftieth state is a group of seven major islands
Niihau, Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, Maui, and Hawaii all
together bigger than the area of Connecticut plus Rhode Island
and with more people (660,000) than either Alaska, Delaware,
Nevada, New Hampshire, Vermont, or Wyoming. The popu-
lation contained only 12,000 pure Hawaiians in 1950, less than
3 per cent, and the current census will probably reduce this to

THE REFERENCE SHELF

an even smaller percentage. The big unknown is whether the
Japanese will continue as the largest ethnic group or lose their
predominance to the Caucasians. Precensus estimates suggest
that each now has roughly a third of the total. Following these
are the part-Hawaiians (15 per cent), the Filipinos (11 per
cent), the Chinese (6 per cent), with the remaining 4 per cent
compounded mainly of Koreans, Puerto Ricans, Negroes,
Samoans.

It was a band of New England missionaries, of course, who
started the Islands on their way toward Western civilization.
They arrived in 1820, forty-two years after Captain James Cook
"discovered" Hawaii; the local saying is that they and successive
missionary waves came to do good but stayed to do well. ^ The
missionaries Christianized the Polynesian natives, moved in on
the brawling town of Honolulu with its drunken whalers, estab-
lished themselves as advisers to the Hawaiian kings, and engi-
neered the Great Mahele, the land division of 1848. Missionaries
and other Yankees started the great sugar-cane plantations,
where the need for workers was met by importing Orientals under
a contract-labor system described as "only a modification of
slavery, founded in deceit and maintained by force." In these
circumstances the "Big Five," a group of mercantile companies,
grew to wield immense local power, financing the plantations,
procuring their labor, purchasing their supplies, providing their
transport, and selling their products. After an unsuccessful
Hawaiian attempt to break the foreigners' religious, economic,
and political power, the Islands became a republic in 1894, a
territory in 1900, a state in 1959.

The Oligarchs of the Islands

Hawaii's new era was startlingly characterized this March
by the head of one of the Big Five companies. "The old caste
system," he said with satisfaction, "is breaking down." What he
meant by the old caste system, and indeed what most Hawaiians
mean when they use the phrase, is not a rigid society of im-
permeable layers. He referred rather to a small circle of business
Brahmins at the summit who had managed to preserve their
aloofness and their control while below them the rest of Hawai-

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 16*

ian society remained relatively fluid. The economic, political,,
and social power of this summit group pivoted on the Big Five.

C. Brewer & Company, oldest of the Big Five, was established
by Captain James Hunnewell in 1826 with $2,500 worth of trade
goods brought in on HunnewelFs vessel. Another sea captain,
Charles Brewer, gave his name to the promising mercantile
business in 1842.

Theo. H. Davies & Company (nee Starkey, Janion & Com-
pany) has been in business since 1845, when the representative
of a Liverpool firm arrived in the Islands with a stock of trade
goods. Nearly 50 per cent of its securities are held by the Davies
family, one of whose members, a young clerk from South Wales,
got the company out of serious difficulties in the ... [1860*s].

American Factors (nee H. Hackfeld & Company) was
founded by sea captain Henry Hackfeld of Bremen, Germany,
in 1849. Branching out of the mercantile business into sugar,
Hackfeld brought so much Bremen capital into the Islands that
by 1880 a third of Hawaii's sugar plantations were financed by
his company. World War I resulted in its seizure by the Alien
Property Custodian and rebirth as American Factors.

Castle & Cooke began as a partnership of Samuel Northrup-
Castle and Amos Starr Cooke, who came to Hawaii in 1837 as
members of a missionary company. In 1851 they got a "dis-
mission" from their mission board and founded Castle & Cooke
as a mercantile business, subsequently went into sugar.

Alexander & Baldwin was founded in 1894 by Samuel T.
Alexander and Henry P. Baldwin, both of missionary stock.
Their fathers had started planting sugar cane a generation be-
fore when the board of missions asked its clerics to try and get
outside work to cut expenses.

Around these five units grew an oligarchy, building up its
power from generation to generation, intermarrying and sharing
common business and social interests. Interlocking relationships
pervaded the whole commercial fabric, linking the Big Five,
the banks, the trust companies, ship lines, insurance firms,
wholesale and retail outlets, hotels, public utilities, water and
irrigation corporations. In this tight system of economic control,,
power over land was essential, and much of the land was ad-

170 THE REFERENCE SHELF

ministered by the trustees of the great estates. Washington
appointed territorial judges agreeable to the oligarchy and the
judges in turn selected the estate trustees and reviewed their
actions. Many of the leading families were philanthropically
inclined, but the one possession they did not let go was business
power. All the way from land to retail trade, control was ex-
ercised in such fashion that the way was smoothed for the in-
sider and made almost impassable for the "interloper," as Sears,
Roebuck learned in its fight to break into Oahu retailing.

A Distribution of Power

Today Big Five companies are still linked with the two big-
gest commercial banks, Hawaiian Electric Company, Matson
Navigation Company, Hawaiian Telephone Company, and
Honolulu Gas Company. And the Big Five still have inter-
locking directors: Alexander & Baldwin has a director in common
with both American Factors and Castle & Cooke, and another
man sits on the boards of both C. Brewer and American Factors.

By mainland standards this may seem like a considerable
concentration of economic power, but not in the perspectives of
Hawaii. It is a far cry indeed from the time when four of the
Big Five executives held offices or directorships in thirty to forty
Hawaiian enterprises or when fifteen officers or directors of Amer-
ican Factors served as officers or directors of sixty-nine other
Island companies. In the changed state of affairs, an American
of Chinese descent, Chinn Ho, sits on the board of a major
Hawaiian estate, that of Mark A. Robinson, the old prejudice
against Oriental trustees finally going down in the face of a
need for Oriental business acumen. And a more dynamic land
policy is to be expected even from the Bishop Estate, which con-
trols 15 per cent of all the land on Oahu, after last year's selec-
tion of State Senator Richard Lyman, a part-Hawaiian, as a
trustee. The pay differential between work done by haoles
(Caucasians) and that done by Orientals has broken down, and
the great white plantation houses are no longer being built.
Remnants of paternalism endure primarily on some of the cattle
ranches, where the hands seem quite content with a way of life
modeled after the patrdn system of Spanish America, and on
Niihau, "the Forbidden Island." Seventh largest of the Hawai-

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AH0 HAWAII 171

ian Islands, with an area of seventy-three square miles and a
population of some 200, Niihau is 99.97 per cent owned by the
Robinson family and run much as though King Kamehameha
TV, the nineteenth century monarch from whom it was bought,
were still on the throne. This April the Coast Guard had to
send a carrier pigeon to ask residents to search the beaches for
a missing transpacific flyer. (The answer: <c No strangers on
island and we don't expect any.") Sampans are still the means
by which the Islanders and their infrequent visitors make the
rough seventeen-mile crossing to Kauai Today Niihau serves
as an extreme example of the Hawaii that used to be.

Natural Resource: Beauty

If a single cause can be assigned to the change in the order
of things Hawaiian, it is undoubtedly the stimulating jolt of
tourism. When mainland greenbacks began to line Hawaiian
pockets as never before, revitalizing the hotel business, touching
off a building boom, and pushing land prices to new highs, ex-
pectations went right up along with everything else. Even the
most confirmed standpatter began to expect a great deal more
of an economy he'd been happy to accept only a year earlier.
In the light of new hopes there occurred a stocktaking that turned
up some sobering as well as some heartening facts.

The positive aspects of the Islands' economy are hard to
categorize, being largely intangible. An advanced technology,
great natural beauty, wonderful weather, and collective open-
heartedness are not found in the usual lists of natural resources;
nevertheless, their dollar value is tremendous. Hawaii has im-
mense know-how in pineapple and sugar. In particular the
research of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association makes the
state the world's most efficient cane producer, besides saving the
plantations from pestilences that would have been ruinous. The
scenery is magnificent: forests of fern and exotic trees like koa
and monkeypod; valleys ablaze with orchids, bougainvillaea,
torch ginger; angular emerald mountains jutting up from the
surf, beaches of white sand or of glistening black lava, even
jewel-strewn green ones of olivine; volcanoes crowned with fire
and volcanoes capped with snow; waterfalls that plunge down-
hill and one that runs uphill. The climate is an asset of great

172 THE REFERENCE SHELF

importance in an age when following the sun has become some-
what of a compulsion. Kau, the word for season, has little
excuse for being in the Hawaiian language: year-round agricul-
ture is standard practice, the October tourist finds the same
euphoric temperature as does the June arrival.

The people are warmhearted, outgiving, hospitable, candid.
Few indeed are the travelers who come away doubting the reality
of the "aloha spirit," that contagious feeling of proportion,
serenity, and comradeship that somehow transcends the discord-
ances in Hawaiian society. "The new Hawaii," as a political
scientist, Lawrence Fuchs, recently said, "is tolerant of new-
comers as the old Hawaii was not The new Hawaii is a spirit,
not a place."

And finally there is Hawaii's geographical situation in the
Pacific and its representation of many of the major east Asian
races. This means more than just the westward extension of
United States boundaries; the citizens of Hawaii have given
the mainland a sense of identity with countries and peoples
once completely alien. Firmer commercial and cultural ties
with the Orient are likely to follow, the way smoothed by
Oriental Hawaiians able to speak the Orient's own tongues. In
the talking stage is a grand design to capitalize on Hawaii's po-
tentialities as an East-West trade center by establishment of a
free port in Honolulu. An East- West Cultural Center at the
University of Hawaii, enthusiastically endorsed by the State
Department, moved a step closer to realization this April when
the Senate unanimously voted it into the mutual-security bill.
[The Center began operations in October 1960. Ed.]

Statistical Serpents in Eden

The negative aspect of Hawaii's economy is to be found in
such words as logistics and natural limitations. The island
state is 2,400 miles distant from West Coast markets, 4,900 miles
away from those on the Atlantic seaboard; freight rates are cor-
respondingly burdensome. Visitors to the Islands, even those
from California, have to fly nearly twice the average distance
flown on a mainland vacation. As for natural limitations, the
6,435 square-mile area of the Islands is small enough in itself,
hut mountains, lava fields, and aridity make it even smaller:

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 171

only 7.5 per cent is cropland. Consequently, Hawaii must im-
port nearly two thirds of the food needed to sustain its present
population, and that population is growing at a faster rate than
Japan's. Land availability is already a major problem on Oahu,.
which contains about four fifths of the people but has only a
tenth of the state's area. Oahu now has a greater population
density (864 per square mile) than Puerto Rico. Water avail-
ability is becoming more or less a problem throughout Hawaii.
On Oahu the success of a current water-resource development
program will determine how big a population can be sustained
there. On the Neighbor Islands, except Kauai, water scarcity
on their leeward sides and the tremendous cost of bringing water
from the wet, windward sides severely circumscribe agricultural
development. These limitations are intensified by a dearth of
raw materials and fuel. The Islands possess neither coal nor oil
nor any mineral of consequence save possibly bauxite and
titanium.

The dollars that keep Hawaii's $1.6 billion economy bloom-
ing are earned primarily in agriculture ($290 million), tourism
($101 million), construction ($167 million), or defense ($338
million). Tourism and defense both have the disadvantage of
being vulnerable to circumstances beyond Hawaii's control: a
mainland depression, or even a recession, could undermine the
tourist industry in a hurry; defense budgets are volatile affairs
made in Washington, not in Honolulu. Defense at present has
a payroll of 50,000 uniformed personnel, 23,000 civilians, or
one out of four workers in the labor force, more than any other
single activity. As for the agricultural dollar earners, they have
their own special problems. Consider the situations in coffee,
cattle, pineapple, and sugar.

Kona coffee, the only coffee produced in the States, is grown
on the Big Island (Hawaii), mainly on a strip twenty-five miles
long and two miles wide. A mountain species of fine flavor, it
flourishes mainly at altitudes of 800 to 2,200 feet, getting essen-
tial shade not from trees but from "coffee clouds," a cloud bank
formed almost daily during the summer months. Production
reached a peak of nearly 15 million pounds ($7.2 million) in
1958, but the farmers, mostly Americans of Japanese descent
working small leased plots of six acres or so, have been heading
into trouble for some time. "It's hard for the boys to get a

T74 THE REFERENCE SHELF

perspective of the problem," said Shoji Kawahara, a coffee
fanner who plainly had the pitch. "The heart of the Kona
farm is the family unit They do the picking. But families
have been getting smaller. My father had eleven children; I
have three. Help has to be hired at harvest time and that costs
money. Then the farmers have been 'keeping up with the
Tanakas/ buying two to three party dresses and $2,500 coffee
dryers they could do without. With the drop in the price of
'cherry 5 [coffee berries] it was 13 cents in 1955, now brings
about 5 cents some are giving up their acreage. The trees are
yellow from lack of fertilizer and the morning glories are tak-
ing over."

Lately the quality of Kona coffee has deteriorated under hasty
processing. This unfortunately has occurred at a time when
quality is on the rise in other producing areas, particularly those
that turned to newer high-yield strains a few years back. In
sum, the prospects of the industry are likely to worsen unless
the fanners cut the costs of production, abandon the individual-
ism that leads them to invest heavily in their personal processing
facilities, and perhaps band together into a cooperative market-
ing-and-processing organization.

Home on the Lava Beds

Hawaii's $10.6 million cattle business began in 1793, when
Captain George Vancouver presented King Kamehameha I with
a bull and a cow, along with sundry other livestock. The ani-
mals were promptly declared kapu (taboo to kill) and had pro-
liferated into wild herds of thousands by the mid-nineteenth
century, when their immunity was revoked. Vaqueros from
Mexico were brought in soon afterward to teach the Hawaiians
"volcano ranching." Today Hawaiian cowboys call themselves
paniolos, after the original espanoles, and herd 160,500 head of
cattle on a million acres of range land. Richard Smart's 265,000-
acre Parker Ranch, begun by a New England sailor back in the
last century, is one of the biggest in the United States. But
Hawaii's cattle ranges are often parched lava lands, cleared of
brush by bulldozer chain, broken up and flattened by sugar-mill
rollers so the cattle can get at the grass. To "grass-finish" beef
in the Islands takes thirty to thirty-six months, a long way from
the cattlemen's goal of twenty to twenty-two months. Feed-lot

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AMD HAWAII 175

finishing, which has been tentatively tried in the past year, is
very costly, for most feeds have to be imported. Yet without
feed-lot finishing, Hawaii's cattle most go to market at lower
weights and lower grades. "There's a $1.5 million Navy con-
tract waiting for us," remarked a Maui rancher this March, "if
we could just get our grades up from 'good' to 'choice.' "

Pineapple, Hawaii's No. 2 export, is composed of nine vari-
ously sized companies, the biggest, with over a third of the pack,
being Dole (Hawaiian Pineapple Company). An all-time
high was reached with the $124.3 million worth of exports in
1958, and last year's volume was only $1.8 million lower. But
the going is likely to be tougher from now on. The industry
must pay a special 2 per cent "processing tax" on its gross in-
come. Its plantations are confronted by rising land costs, and
in some areas they face the withdrawal of leased pineapple lands
for uses of greater value to the owners. On the mainland, a
market that is more than 80 per cent supplied by Hawaii, there
has been stiff competition from other fruits and juices, frozen
and canned, plus some inroads by foreign pineapple.

In the world market, currently accounting for about a tenth
of the Islands' sales, the cheap labor, lower freight rates, and
government subsidies of some foreign competitors are taking
their toll. Hawaii's share of the world supply of solid-pack pine-
apple has dropped from 75 per cent in 1946 to 69 per cent in
1949 and 57 per cent in 1958. Malaya, Australia, South Africa,
Mexico, and Formosa are gaining. Formosa and Hawaii are
now neck and neck in West Germany, the biggest Continental
market for canned pineapple. Each has something over 36 per
cent of this market, where only three years ago the ratio was
Hawaii 60 per cent, Formosa 26 per cent Last year Formosan
pineapple was sold in West Germany for as much as 39 per cent
less than the Hawaiian product. As the president of Hawaiian
Pineapple, H. C. Cornuelle, told his stockholders at the last
annual meeting: "Our quality will not carry us all the way if
the cost differential between Hawaiian and foreign pineapple
widens.'*

Sugar: More Lumps?

Sugar, Hawaii's greatest export for well over eighty years, is
produced by an industry now distinguished by highly efficient

THE REFERENCE SHELF

operation, diligent research, the world's highest wages for sugar
workers in the fields ($12.80 a day), and small prospects for
expansion. Currently it is being pinched by forces beyond its
control: the rising cost of land throughout the state, and a land
scarcity that in the opinion of at least one industrial planner may
squeeze sugar out of Oahu by 1970. (This spring American
Factors announced that 13,500 acres of sugar-cane landleased
from the Bishop Estate by Oahu Sugar Company would be
turned into a housing development touted as "the largest ever
undertaken in the state of Hawaii.") In addition, Island sugar
has yet to recover from the 1958 strike. This melancholy affair
began so mildly that it was called the "aloha strike" in its early
stages. But it soon turned into the most disastrous stoppage on
record, thanks in good part to management's clumsy public re-
lations. The four months' stoppage cut Hawaii's sugar produc-
tion 29 per cent in 1958, and the interruption to the growing
-cycle is expected to retard sugar output until the 1961 crop.
'Several sugar companies, among them Ewa Plantation, Oahu
Sugar, Pioneer Mill, Kahuku Plantation, McBryde Sugar, and
Kekaha Sugar, were still in the red in 1959. But when Island
sugar does get back to normal it cannot hope for much more
than a sales increase geared to U.S. population growth. "If
we want to grow and expand in the sugar business," declared
Boyd MacNaughton, president of C Brewer & Company, "we
have to do it outside Hawaii and the U.S." C. Brewer, signifi-
cantly, is in the process of setting up a 25,000-acre sugar planta-
tion in Iran. And this year Sugar International was formed by
C. Hutton Smith of American Factors (Hawaii's biggest sugar
agency) with Hawaiian Dredging & Construction Co. and J. H.
Pomeroy & Company to establish a Hawaiian-style sugar in-
dustry in rapidly developing countries such as the Sudanese
Republic.

Islanders Out, Mainlanders In

The sugar industry's new interest in production outside the
Islands calls attention to one of the most important changes
taking place in Hawaii: a general breaking of the invisible bar-
riers that had isolated Hawaiian business. Hawaiian Dredging
is already doing 50 per cent of its business overseas, singly or
jointly working on upwards of $150 million worth of contracts

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 177

from Japan to Kuwait. Declared founder Walter Dillingham:
"We've already done the big jobs in the Islands, and we now
think of the dredging business as world-wide. There's better
potential for it in the Middle East, where we're already operat-
ing." Hawaiian Airlines' imaginative young president, Arthur
Lewis, has a plan to make the new state the center of a system
fanning out all over the Pacific; if the proposition wins CAB
approval, and it should, Hawaii may become even more of a
"political and intellectual bridge" between Asia and the United
States mainland than it is today. And, increasingly, Hawaii's
peripatetic businessmen have been sniffing out business oppor-
tunities in Japan, Hong Kong, and the Philippines.

While some Island enterprises have been reaching out of
Hawaii for larger opportunities, mainland business has been
reaching in. Mainland capital is destined to have a profound
influence on Hawaii, and very soon. "By 1965," predicted an
astute Island financier this April, "mainland capital will be in
control here, with an ownership of over 50 per cent." The stake
of U.S. insurance companies in Hawaii is already $200 million,
twelve times the $17 million of 1948. Standard Oil of Cali-
fornia has invested more than $60 million in a new refinery, part
of which will go on stream this fall. Sheraton bought Matson's
four once-faltering hotels the Moana, Surf Rider, Royal Hawai-
ian, and Princess Kaiulani last June for $18 million. (One
difference between the two managements is indicated by this
little fact: Sheraton now sells for $400 a month the hotel gar-
bage Matson paid to have hauled away.) Two mainland cor-
porations, American Cement and Cyprus Mines, are the prime
backers of a $12 million cement plant (Hawaiian Cement Cor-
poration) to be in operation this summer. Kaiser's Permanente
Cement Company has almost finished its own $13.5 million in-
stallation on Oahu, and Kaiser's huge Hawaii Kai development
is owned by Kaiser Industries (1959 assets: $322 million). The
Big Five appeared enormous when they were the only frogs in
the puddle; but now that the Big Five, none of which has assets
of more than $56 million, are being compared to mainland busi-
ness, their size suddenly seems to shrink. Moreover, ownership
of even the Big Five is changing; two thirds of the stock of
C. Brewer & Company, for instance, is held by mainlanders.

178 THE REFERENCE SHELF

In future changes, mainland manpower will be almost as im-
portant as mainland capital. Indeed, it has already had an im-
portant impact on Hawaii, replacing some managers who owed
their jobs to the old school lei with professional management.
Rudolph Peterson, fresh from the customer-pleasing tradition of
Transamerica Corporation, took hold of the haolefied Bank of
Hawaii, shook it into an awareness of its opportunities. In four
years he more than doubled net profits, increased deposits by
two thirds (1959: $303 million). The Honolulu Advertiser, a
metropolitan daily with a provincial outlook and a plant so
antique that heads were set by hand, was stimulated back to
health and usefulness in a little over a year by George Chaplin,
who had been editor of the New Orleans Item. Oregonian
Boyd MacNaughton became the first mainlander to head up
C. Brewer & Company the first mainlander, that is, without
family connections in the Islands. His performance over the
past four years in Brewer's No. 1 spot speaks well for the change:
the company's plantations are now considered the most efficient
in Hawaii.

The Movers from Within

The rise of mainland influence in Island affairs, however,
should not obscure the fact that a number of bright and dy-
namic individuals, Hawaiian by birth or adoption, are also
effectively reshaping the fiftieth state from within. [State]
Senator O. Vincent Esposito and House Majority Leader Thomas
Gill have been pressing vigorously to reduce the concentration
of landownership, particularly on Oahu. A legislative program
to force the big estates to disgorge land by threatening con-
demnation failed to pass last year, although a watered-down
condemnation law is now on the books. But the support land
reform did get was enough to cause some speedup by the big
estates in putting more leasehold homesites on the market. On
the bench, the new state supreme court (its first chief justice:
Wilfred C. Tsukiyama) can be expected to exercise closer super-
vision of the land owned by estates than the old territorial su-
preme court. Such supervision might even induce Hawaii's
biggest single landowner, the Bishop Estate, to hire a profes-
sional planner for its acreage, holdings worth $6 million fust
after the war and $120 million today. In the cultural field,

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 179

Dr. Alex Spoehr has made the Bishop Museum both an im-
portant entomological research center and the world's best as-
semblage of Polynesian and Hawaiian artifacts; George Barati
has built up the Honolulu Symphony from a tiny orchestra with
a 1950 budget of $25,000 to eighty-six members and a budget of
$178,500. In the world of business, where the change has been
most sweeping, three men typify the internal influences bringing
about Hawaii's new look: Chinn Ho, Walter Dillingham, and
Henry Kaiser.

Fast Decisions in the Hui

Chinn Ho, fifty-six, is representative of a group of high-
powered Oriental entrepreneurs (his grandfather was a Chinese
farmer) who started out with nothing and now head syndicates
(huis) of size and importance. It was partially through huis
that the Islands' Chinese got their first toehold in real estate:
during World War II they were ready with cash to snap up the
land that some haole families, alarmed by the possibility of in-
vasion, had put on the market. Chinn Ho first broke tradition
by being the first Chinese to trade on the Honolulu Stock Ex-
change and seems to have been breaking some sort of record
ever since. The capital of Chinn's huis, like all others, is
contributed by hundreds of individuals looking for a faster
turnover than they could reasonably get from investment
in ordinary securities. With a free hand in the management
of his huis, Chinn has snapped up many opportunities ignored
by Hawaii's older, entrenched wealth. His Capital Investment
Company and subsidiaries had assets of $1.2 million in 1947, are
now worth an impressive $25 million. A dozen enterprises, main-
ly in Hawaiian real estate, are doing very well indeed, as is a
joint venture with Louis Perini to develop 2,200 acres of land
on the outskirts of San Francisco. Chinn prides himself on fast
decisions, high-leverage investments, and calculated risks. A
few years back he bought 9,150 acres of sugar-cane land from
Waianae Company for $1.25 million, soon sold 4,000 acres of
it for more than $6 million, has watched the remaining acreage
steadily increase in value. This year two West Coast developers
got an option on $7 million worth of waterfront property
adjacent to Waikiki and announced they were going to build a
$15 million cooperative apartment hotel on it. Chinn, im-

180 THE REFERENCE SHELF

pressed by the public response to the proposition, moved in fast
and bought up their option. There was not even a plan of the
building, but within ten days of the announcement prospective
owners had plunked down $100 deposits for over seven hundred
of the one thousand apartments in the first unit. Chirm's sharp
pencil figures there'll be an appreciation in the value of the land
of $2.5 million upon construction of the first unit (which would
occupy less than half the acreage). If he exercises his right to
take a position on the building as well the tenants will put
$12.5 million of their money into that leaving only $5 million
to be borrowed then the profit on the first-unit land and build-
ing should run between $5 million and $7 million. Small
wonder that Lowell Dillingham, Walter Dillingham's eldest
son and the fast-moving president of Hawaiian Dredging (1959
assets: $18 million) should have remarked in February: "We've
all missed the boat in land development. Local moneyed in-
terests could have done the developing that mainlanders and
the huis are doing. The Big Five have plenty of land but they've
been so busy trying to keep the sugar industry in a profitable
position they haven't had time or effort or money for much else."

Uncle Walter's Still Going Strong

Walter Dillingham, eighty-five, personifies quite a different
sort of business influence, though one much admired by Chinn
and other rising businessmen, for Dillingham also abhors in-
active wealth. Born in the Islands, the son of a Gape Cod
schooner captain, urbane, vigorous, astute, "Uncle Walter" has
always been a man to reckon with whether on the polo field
(he played with sons Lowell, Ben, and Gaylord until he was
sixty) or in business. The key Dillingham company is Hawai-
ian Dredging, begun with $5,000 of borrowed capital in 1902.
Since that time it has literally made much of Honolulu, opening
up Pearl Harbor, reclaiming Waikiki from the swamp that
isolated it, pumping up the coral to provide Jim Dole with a site
for an early pineapple cannery and the International Airport
with runways for its planes in all adding some five thousand
acres of new land, the lion's share of the made ground on which
roughly a third of Honolulu stands. Land and industrial de-
velopment followed Dillingham suburbs like Wailupe, and

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 181

Dillingham deepwater docks, towboats, barges, a big trucking
company (Oahu Transport, ably run by close associate John
Walker), a spreading out into sugar (Dillingham is a director of
American Factors) and into banking (he is chairman of the
Bank of Hawaii).

With such a diversity of interests, Dillingham has had a
pervasive influence on Hawaiian business. He has survived
numerous skirmishes with Matson and so successfully fought
the Big Five that at one time he was known as the Big Sixth.
But by and large, he has been a force driving from within the
prevailing order of things, rather than one functioning in-
dependently of it. Last year, however, a single Dillingham
project shifted Honolulu's whole axis of retail trade. The im-
mense new Ala Moana center, a $30 million complex of smart
shops and big stores (Sears, Wool worth's, Foodland), in effect
established a new downtown for Honolulu, supplanting the old,
traffic-choked commercial section. Annual sales are expected
to reach $40 million, possibly $50 million, compared to $70 mil-
lion for the downtown district.

The Courtship of Henry Kaiser

At the opposite pole of the Hawaiian business world from
Walter Dillingham, opposite in temperament, method, and
outlook, is Henry Kaiser. Kaiser's love affair with Hawaii be-
gan in earnest in 1954 when he saw droves of tourists being
turned away from the few hotels on Waikiki. No more room
for hotels on Waikiki beach, he was told, so no more room for
tourists. By the following year Kaiser and his community-
building partner Fritz B. Burns had become Waikikfs biggest
private landowners and the Kaiser-Burns Development Corpora-
tion was hard at work turning twenty acres of slums into a
resort center (Hawaiian Village) with a two-thousand-foot man-
made beach. The Honolulu Advertiser correctly observed at the
time that a milestone in Hawaiian history was "marked by the
entry into these Islands of Henry Kaiser." Within six years
Kaiser has built the Hawaiian Village, a nine-hundred-room
$15 million hotel complex, the $4 million Kaiser Foundation
Medical Center, the $13.5 million cement plant, and established
radio station KHVH and television station KHVH-TV. This

182 THE REFERENCE SHELF

year finds him erecting a $5 million addition to the Hawaiian
Village with one hand and with the other working away at
Hawaii Kai, billed as a $350 million resort "city 5 * some twenty
minutes from Waikiki.

Inevitably Henry Kaiser's zealous and jealous courtship of
Hawaii has stirred up one storm after another. When a top
businessman first heard of Hawaii Kai he exclaimed in anger and
amazement: "My God, he's outflanking us at Waikiki." When
United Air Lines flew in a press party in a new DC-8, to publi-
cize the California-Hawaii jet service it would begin in mid-
March, Kaiser stole the headlines with an announcement he
himself was trying to charter or buy "one or more jet planes to
take care of the emergency needs I see growing worse." When
the Advertiser ventured to ask editorially what was going to
happen to the homes and leaseholds of a number of families in
the path of the Hawaii Kai development (which will occupy
six thousand acres of Oahu's precious land), Kaiser reacted like
a Bourbon monarch whose divine right had been questioned,
calling the editors cowards, liars, anti-progress, and participants
in a "stop Kaiser" movement. And, of course, Kaiser very soon
indicated that the Islands were now too small for both himself
and Hawaii's Grand Old Man, Walter Dillmgham.

The conflict started with the announcement that a new com-
pany, Hawaiian Cement Corporation, was going to set up a
$12 million plant, using Oahu coral as its raw material. Main-
land interests (American Cement and Cyprus Mines) were going
to supply the know-how and most of the money, Dillingham and
Bechtel Corporation would build it as a joint venture. Kaiser
immediately announced that he too was going to build a big
cement plant. Before very long Dillingham was growling that
Kaiser men were out buying up coral outcroppings to deprive
Hawaiian's prospective plant of raw material. Kaiser, for his
part, accused the Dillinghams of underhanded tactics in trying
to keep his plant site zoned against "noxious industry." Dilling-
ham, in face-to-face debate, dismissed Kaiser as "a visitor here,"
only to have the visitor invade the dredging business with a
million dollars' worth of equipment What makes this affair
interesting, however, is economics, not histrionics. Both cement
plants will be in operation this year [I960]. The two plants
can produce 2.7 million barrels of cement, almost three times

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 183

the amount Pennanente has been shipping in and more than
double the estimated 1.1 million barrels now being absorbed in
Hawaii. Something is certain to give, but each group is sure it
will be the other. "If we have to cut price," said Kaiser recently,
"we'll cut it. That's how I broke into the cement business back
in the late thirties."

Too Much, Too Soon?

What^ all this suggests is that Hawaii's most immediate
problem is one of maintaining proper balance. Two big cement
plants plunked down at the same time in a pocket market is as
much a promise of trouble as of progress. And not surprisingly,
the building boom is the source of other storm signals. The
Islands' leading economist, James Shoemaker of the Bank of
Hawaii, called attention in January to the fact that the pace of
construction 1959 more than doubling the annual level of only
four years ago had outdistanced both population and consumer
buying power. An executive of a chain of co-op apartment hotels
was worried about quality: "Some construction Is very careless.
We shouldn't take advantage of the boom and start building
flimsy construction in the outlying areasit would deaden the
atmosphere for Hawaii." More recently, Honolulu's Bishop Street
bankers have been voicing concern over the rash of cooperative
apartments. The First National Bank and the Bank of Hawaii
will accept construction mortgages on co-ops. But once the build-
ing is finished these banks do not want the mortgage, and some-
one else, often a mainland insurance company, takes over.

Looking at Hawaii from the perspective of almost forty years,
Alva E. Steadman, board chairman of the Cooke Trust Company
and vice chairman of the Bank of Hawaii, observed this March:

I think we're going too fast and I don't see any effective brakes. The
boom has all the elements of dangerous explosiveness. The real-estate
men are scared to death to make an appraisal for fear somebody else
will say the property's worth twice that. People are even buying a
chunk of volcano on the Big Island for $895 a lot. I don't believe any-
body can predict where Hawaii's going. Most of the supermarkets are
undercapitalized. A baking company of which I'm president has had to
let some supermarkets take sixty days to settle their bills. They're using
our money as working capital in a total amount of $300,000 $50,000 to
one supermarket alone. This shows how much of the boom is on credit
We have four more stores now than eighteen months ago, yet gross

184 THE REFERENCE SHELF

sales are no greater than eighteen months ago. Imagine what that does
to profits 1 Some will go broke, but that won't solve anything. What in
hell can anyone else do with a used supermarket?"

Prudent Prospects of Growth

The long and short of it would seem to be that from now on
the change in Hawaii should be selective change. If the Islands
let their enthusiasm sweep them into overbuilding, a recession
would hit Hawaii hard. Even though tourism is incontrovertibly
the best hope of the fiftieth state, better a little scarcity than two
rooms for every tourist At the same time, no delay is tolerable
in a prudent expansion of tourism to the Neighbor Islands, par-
ticularly Maui, Kauai, and Hawaii, nor in making the most of
today's circumstances. The six-hundred-mile-- an-hour jet is cur-
rently working for the Islands, bringing tourists there in half
the nine hours required by piston aircraft; the big trick is getting
them to stay for longer periods of time and capturing for Hawaii's
tourist industry a bigger proportion of the travelers using the
Islands merely as a stopover. Now would seem to be the time to
maximize Hawaii's attractions, before tomorrow's great-circle
routes across the Pacific invite bypassing the Islands.

In the past Hawaii has had a way of making even the most
ebullient forecasts look bearish. In booming 1955 the best pre-
dictions were that 170,000 tourists would come in 1959 and drop
$88 million. Today's projections for the next decade population
up 44 per cent to 950,000, gross state product up about 56 per cent
to $2.5 billion, upwards of a million tourists spending $573 mil-
lion a year these could look just as conservative when 1970 rolls
around. Having come so far, Hawaii cannot afford to falter now.
And certainly the rest of the nation cannot afford to have it fal-
ter. Where else can mainlanders find so marvelous a combina-
tion of Yankee ingenuity and grit, Oriental industry and perse-
verance, a Christian ethic warmed and enlivened by the good will
and good humor of the Pacific? Nowhere else is it possible for
them to feel so at ease among the Pacific races, whose members
are proud to be "first-class citizens" of the republic. Hawaii has
the faculty of making even the most moribund mainlander come
alive. Sooner or later such a happy awareness will comprehend
that Hawaii has also made us partners in the vast world of the
Pacific.

V. OF

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

If the people of the new states were asked to list their major
state problems, they might well rank defense at the top. The
defense problem has what might be termed a double-barreled
effect. On the one hand, both Alaska and Hawaii are con-
tinental outposts in vulnerable and exposed geographic positions.
Alaska, particularly, is but a short drive across the arctic ice to
Soviet Siberia, and her hundreds of miles of coastline remain
open and, for the most part, undefended.

On the other hand, military spending has become a key eco-
nomic prop for both states. Defense expenditures by the Federal
Government are the leading source of income in Alaska and
Hawaii, and any talk of a military cutback sends shivers through
the congressional delegations from both states in Washington.
In two important ways, therefore, the nation's defenses are
crucially tied to the fortunes of our most recent states.

In the first article in this final section Hanson W. Baldwin,
the noted military affairs analyst, raises some disturbing ques-
tions about the defense posture of the forty-ninth state. The
questions are pursued by Senator Ernest Gruening and the late
Senator Richard L. Neuberger, in the second article, which makes
a plea for greater military attention to Alaska. The third article
describes Alaska's defense posture as of the end of 1962. The
concluding article outlines Hawaii's stake in defense spending.

ARCTIC OUTPOST IN THE COLD WAR *

Is Alaska gigantic promontory of North America, closest
United States soil to Soviet Russia and newly created state a
strategic asset or a liability?

In Fairbanks and Anchorage and in the bleak, snow-swept
streets of Nome, Alaska's sparse population does not spend much
time on this question; instead, the size of the anticipated salmon

1 From ''Communique from our Alaskan Outpost," by Hanson W. Baldwin, New
York Times military affairs analyst. New York Times Magazine, p 12+. Mr. 15, '59.
Copyright by The New York Times. Reprinted by permission.

186 THE REFERENCE SHELF

catch and the new state legislature's pay scales are of more
immediate interest.

But at Elmendorf Air Force Base near . . . [Anchorage]
headquarters of Lieutenant General Frank A. Armstrong, Jr.,
Commander in Chief, Alaska; at Colorado Springs, headquarters
of the North American Air Defense Command; at Strategic Air
Command headquarters near Omaha, and in the Pentagon, the
strategic importance of Alaska and its strengths and weaknesses
are again under debate.

Geographically, Alaska's key position is evident from a glance
at any map. The peninsula and its long chain of the Aleutian
Islands dominate the great-circle shipping and air routes across
the North Pacific. Alaska on one flank and Greenland on the
other are sentinels for warning, ramparts for defense and ad-
vanced bases for counterattack for the North American continent.

Soviet bases in the Chukchi (Chukotski) Peninsula, which
is separated by only fifty-five miles of ice-choked Bering Strait
from mainland Alaska, are closer by 1,000 miles to the Chicago-
Detroit industrial region than any other Russian base. Alaska
is a dominant area in the "polar concept" of strategy attack
and defense through the air across the top of the world.

But the acknowledged geographic importance of Alaska is
offset, in the minds of some strategists, by two disadvantages.

First, some point out that it is far away from the center of
Soviet industrial-military power, which is in European Russia,
not in Siberia. But this objection loses meaning as modern
weapons achieve almost limitless ranges. (It is only 4,100 air
miles from Fairbanks to Moscow and an intercontinental ballistic
missile, emplaced at Fairbanks, could reach any part of Russia or
China, as well as Western Europe) .

The second adverse entry in Alaska's strategic balance sheet
is the nature of the country frigid cold and shrieking winds,
inaccessible and unexplored wilds, high costs, difficult supply
problems and primitive communications.

There is no doubt that Alaska the land, the climate, the
environment presents some major problems in military develop-
ment. Alaska has about one fifth the area of the . . . forty-eight
[mainland] states and it is separated from all of them. It has
virtually no industry, very few roads, and its one railroad is
hundreds of miles from the Canadian system to the south. The

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 187

Alaska Highway, 1,523 miles long, extending from the end of the
Canadian highway system at Dawson Creek to Fairbanks, is the
only land link with the continental states, and it is a gravel road,
with limited capacity. . . .

Eskimos in Alaska's two unique National Guard scout bat-
talions are equipped with M-l rifles and Army radios and they
do their forty-eight drills a year and their "summer" camp in
March. But to many of them military terminology in English
may be difficult and to explain it in Eskimo may be even more
difficult, for the language contains no exact words for such
military terms as "tanks" or "tracks." So the instructor, describ-
ing what a tank is, uses Eskimo symbolism: "A tank is a walrus
with a tin can around it on wheels only they are not really
wheels."

Like Russia, Alaska is a contrast between the most primitive
and the most advanced, between extremes of heat and cold, snow
and rainfall, wind and sun a wilderness, the last frontier, . . .
a land that once before, in World War II, was a base for more
than 100,000 troops and ferry route for planes to Russia.

So the problems of rugged wilderness, inadequate communica-
tions, primitive living, high costs and extreme climate have been
solved before, are being solved today, can be solved tomorrow.
But a psychological barrier, compounded in part of fact but in
part of legend, of fear, of ignorance, has hampered the full
military exploitation of Alaska's strategic position.

This is a land with but few people perhaps a quarter of a
million all told, including some 34,000 men of the armed services,
6,500 civil service employees working for the military, and 33,000
military dependents. Most of the people are crowded around the
panhandle area, or Anchorage, Alaska's largest city, or Fairbanks.
For endless mile on mile there is nobody.

This is a land with some 33,000 miles of seacoast, guarded by
one of the world's most complete radar lines but actually "pro-
tected" along its ground periphery only by one thousand Eskimo,
Indian and Aleut scouts.

Alaska, in military terminology, is an "overseas theater,"
with a single unified commander General Armstrong over all
the armed services. But General Armstrong, unlike other theater
commanders, has few forces he can call his own; it has been
said of him that he is the only lieutenant general in the Air

18S THE REFERENCE SHELF

Force who commands only two Army battle groups. The two
reinforced battle groups four thousand men are the principal
ground combat forces of the Army in Alaska and only the Army
comes clearly and unequivocally under the command of
"CINCAL" (Commander in Chief, Alaska).

The Navy's Alaskan Sea Frontier, with headquarters at
Kodiak and an outer base at bleak Adak in the Aleutians, is
"responsive" to "CINCAL," but its operating forces (twelve naval
patrol planes and a handful of small ships in peacetime) come
under operational control of the Commander in Chief, Pacific,
in peace and war. The Air Force maintains only two combat
squadrons one reinforced or some sixty fighter-interceptor
planes in all Alaska. But "CINCAL" does not control them;
General Armstrong wears another hat as Alaskan regional com-
mander for the North American Air Defense Command and as
such he operates them for Colorado Springs.

Nor does "CINCAL" have any oflensive power. The only
missiles in Alaska are two battalions of Nike-Hercules anti-
aircraft defensive missiles, which have just been emplaced around
Fairbanks and Anchorage. The only bombers in Alaska
normally about twelve or fourteen B-47's belong to the Strategic
Air Command and are rotated to Elmendorf and Eielson Air
Force Bases for about two weeks' alert status from home bases in
the West and Southwest. "CINCAL" provides them with support
and security.

Alaska's strategic concept today is fundamentally defensive.
There are only two important target complexes or basic military
objectives in the state: the Fairbanks area with the Ladd-Eielson
airfields near by, and the Anchorage area, with Elmendorf field
and Fort Richardson. These areas are regarded as "stationary
aircraft carriers in a sea of tundra"; the insular concept of defense
prevails.

These areas, and these only, will be defended. All the rest of
the military apparatus in Alaska exists for two other fundamental
purposes: to provide early warning of enemy attack to the United
States and to provide one 14,600-foot runway at Eielson and the
necessary support for SAC's twelve bombers. . . .

But Alaska's defense, as such, is simply enough to prevent
the enemy from "taking a Sunday ride." The Russians could
saturate our control system, overwhelm Anchorage and Fairbanks

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 189

with weight of numbers. No defense, as such, can prevent this.
Alaska, like all the rest of the world (but even more so because
of its proximity to forward Soviet bases) has and can have no
real defense in the strict meaning of the term in the age of
hydrogen weapons, jet aircraft and missiles. Its only real defense
today is offense and Alaska has no offense of its own, only
SAC's twelve bombers, their objectives deep in the heart of
Russia, not the forward Soviet bases in the Chukchi Peninsula
which frown across the Bering Strait. ...

Yet Alaska is an ideal site for intermediate-range ballistic
missiles, or even for intercontinental ballistic missiles. One or
two missiles on the bleak and unpopulated outer Aleutians
zeroed in on Petropavlovsk could neutralize that threat forever.
A squadron deep in the Alaskan Range, or near Kotzebue back
in a fold of the hills could provide far more defense, not only
for Alaska, but also for the continental United States, than all
of Alaska's fighter planes and early-warning radar. The Soviet
Chukchi bases would no longer be a "dagger" extended toward
our continent

MILITARY NEGLECT OF ALASKA CHARGED 2

MR. GRUENING: Mr. President, the New York Times yester-
day printed a letter signed by the two Senators from Alaska and
the Alaska Representative in the House taking issue with state-
ments in an article published by the New York Times 9 military
expert, Hanson W, Baldwin. . . . Mr. President, Mr. Baldwin
had stated that only the important military areas in Alaska
around Fairbanks and Anchorage would be defended in the
event of a shooting war. Apparently the rest of Alaska and its
people would be left undefended. The Alaska delegation felt
that it could not allow so mischievous and unwarranted a state-
ment to go unchallenged, and therefore communicated its views
to the Secretary of Defense Neil McElroy, asking him for
confirmation or correction of this statement for the record.

Secretary McElroy's reply was gratifyingly categorical, to the
effect that "there is no military plan in existence, and none has
been considered, which contemplates or accepts the concept that

s Frorn "Military Defense of Alaska," remarks on the United States Senate floor by
Senator Ernest Greening (Democrat, Alaska) and the late Senator Richard L. Neuberger
(Democrat, Oregon), April 27, 1959. Congressional Record. 105:6818-19. Ap. 27, '59.

190 THE REFERENCE SHELF

the United States would fail to defend any and all of our
sovereign territory and that includes, of course, Alaska as an
integral part." This correspondence was printed in the magazine
section of the New York Times . . . yesterday, April 26, 1959,
together with a reply by Mr. Baldwin, to whom the New York
Times quite properly accorded the privilege of replying to
Secretary McElroy.

Unfortunately, Mr. Baldwin compounded his error by a
concluding statement in which he alluded to the "potential
danger" that

A small-scale enemy attack somewhere on the periphery of Alaska
might well create such a political and psychological uproar that it
would create a costly and wasteful military diversion as did the Japanese
on the Aleutians during World War II.

Mr. President, the fact is that what Mr. Baldwin calls a
"costly and wasteful military diversion 55 namely, the expulsion
of the Japanese, after their occupation of Attu and Kiska Islands
would never have occurred if the Federal Government, includ-
ing successive Congresses, had sensed the military and strategic
importance of Alaska, and had provided the necessary defenses

The story of the military neglect of Alaska is long; and, al-
though I am familiar with it, it need not be told here. . . . My
point in bringing up this matter today in connection with the
correspondence which was published in yesterday's New York
Times is that I continue to feel very strongly that the defenses
of Alaska are as yet by no means what they should be. In the
course of the last few years, the United States has built a
tremendous number of bases all over the world. They have
been built at great cost. Many of them are of extremely dubious
value. No doubt they were calculated risks when they were
planned and represented the best thinking of our military au-
thorities at the time when they were established. But there is no
question that today our tenure of a great many of these foreign-
based establishments is highly uncertain. There is uncertainty
about whether we shall be able to maintain them, even during
the cold war, in the face of opposition from the governments of
the countries where the United States bases are located; and
this uncertainty applies even in the case of countries which are
manifestly friendly, and whose people we count as belonging to

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 191

the free world. In other cases, in the case of countries less free,
there is little question that Uncle Sam is being blackmailed, if
that may not be too harsh a word, for the right to keep those
bases there. If that is too harsh a word, let me say that Uncle
Sam is obliged to pay through the nose. There is the further
question of whether, with the changing technology of war, these
bases have the value that was ascribed to them when they were
established.

With the rapid change in the methods of warfare, the validity
of these bases, I think, deserves careful reexamination by the
Congresses and by the military authorities.

But I wish to point out that whatever defenses we build in
Alaska, we build on the firm rock of United States terrain and
within the security of a 100 per cent loyal American people.
What is built in Alaska is not liable to sabotage, subversion, or
other adverse factors which exist in the case of many oversea
bases. Alaska's defense should be fully reconsidered, so as to
make the forty-ninth state what is an important part of its
destiny namely, to be a bulwark of defense for the North
American continent, and thereby for the whole free world.

I repudiate the notion that defending a square foot of Amer-
ican soil is costly and wasteful. But it is much better to have
the defenses and potential offenses in such shape that no
enemy will be tempted, as were the Japanese, to invade any part
of our nation. . . .

MR. NEUBERGER: I have been listening with great interest to
the discussion of our defenses generally, and those of Alaska
particularly, by the . . . [able Senator] from Alaska. Of course,

I was especially interested because during much of World War

II I was stationed in the Alaska theater of war, as the eminent
junior Senator from Alaska knows, because at that time he was
the governor of Alaska. I believe he served as governor of the
territory of Alaska longer than anyone in Alaska's territorial
history.

But the point which I wish to make and which I think is
important is this. Reference was made to the New York Times.
This morning there commenced, on the front pages of the New
York Times, a most informative series of articles of what the
writer has seen in his travels through Siberia. He describes there-
in vast developments occurring in Siberia in terms of hydroelectric

1t2 THE REFERENCE SHELF

power, railroad construction, highway construction, industrial
plants, and an entire, impressive, vast program, which he discusses.

Siberia is opposite Alaska at Bering Strait. If any conflict ever
occurs at the roof of the globe, and we pray it will not, it will
occur, so far as geography is concerned, between the state of
Alaska and Siberia, because at Bering Strait they nearly touch.
On a clear day one can see the low headlands of Siberia looming
out of the bay, as the Senators from Alaska so well know.

It seems to me the articles which are starting in the New
York Times emphasize that what has been done in Siberia by the
Soviet Union, through vast expenditures of money and resources,
should stimulate us in the Senate and the other body of Congress
and the President of the United States to bring about a similar
program of development in Alaska. Alaska needs roads, highways,
a railway connection with the United States, and great hydro-
electric power projects to tap such rivers as the Yukon and other
great streams which could provide industrial development.

I think the series of articles on Siberia should encourage the
Government of the United States to follow Russia's lead, and
proceed to develop Alaska, which has not yet been done.

ALASKA: FIRST LINE OF DEFENSE 3

Militarily Alaska has been called the "forgotten land."
Strategically, Alaska is the first line of defense for North
America for any possible Soviet-launched aggression.

This strange paradox has led to a controversial approach to
the military problems that face the largest state in the Union.

Hanson Baldwin, military writer for the New York Times,
early this year noted that "Alaska, the forty-ninth state, and
the closest United States "real estate' to the Soviet Union is
something of a military stepchild."

There are nearly 34,000 uniformed men scattered throughout
Alaska, representing all services. With their dependents they
number about 77,000 out of a total population of 227,000 persons.

Military posts are located in all parts of the state, stretching
from the now famed DEW Line in the arctic to a Coast Guard
unit at Ketchikan.

8 From "Strategically, Alaska Is First Defense Line." Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
(Progress Edition), p 32C. N. 28, '62. Reprinted by permission.

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AMD HAWAII 193

But except for a number of transient nuclear-armed Strategic
Air Command bombers, and an occasional Polaris submarine
operating off the Alaskan coast, the nearest state to Russia does
not have a great deal of offensive potential.

This "defense only" attitude on the part of national military
planners has not been without controversy. The first official to
promote the need for offensive bases in Alaska was the late Gen-
eral Billy Mitchell, who was subsequently court-martialed for his
beliefs in air power, and his attitudes toward higher command
thinking.

The last person to speak out for offensive weapons in Alaska
was General Frank Armstrong, World War II hero, and former
commander of all forces in Alaska. He was rumored to have
gotten a premature retirement slightly over a year ago for his
views.

The present Alaska Command Commander-in-Chief is Lieu-
tenant General George W. Mundy, like Armstrong an Air Force
officer and World War II hero.

Soon after the general took command last year, two very
strong rumors regarding offensive power circulated throughout
the state.

The first concerned the building of a nuclear submarine base
in southeastern Alaska, and the other regarded construction of
Atlas Missile launching sites here.

The Air Force admitted that it had inspection teams looking
over Alaska to find Atlas sites, but to this date none have officially
been programed.

The nuclear submarine base was programed for an island in
the mid-Pacific Ocean.

Meantime, Alaska remains the best outpost and warning
station the continental United States has ever maintained.

First fixed line of warning is the DEW Line, a multimillion-
dollar series of radar stations strung along the Arctic Coast.
This is backed up with military aircraft warning sites, operated
by the Air Force.

Supplementing the electronic sites are the eyes and ears of
several thousand Eskimo scouts, who report all strange happen-
ings along the northern and western periphery of the state.

194 THE REFERENCE SHELF

The communication key to the radar stations is White Alice,
a system of sites that can speed messages over most of North
America in a matter of seconds.

To warn against missiles there is the giant Ballistic Missile
Early Warning Site at Clear, on the Alaska Railroad. The Air
Force also operates the Donnelly Dome Satellite Tracking
Station, near Big Delta.

There is also extensive and sensitive warning type sites located
at Shemya, an island near the far tip of the Aleutian Chain.

To back up the fixed stations, the Air Force and Navy also
operate round-the-clock flying radar stations. The famed U-2
plane is also known to operate out of Alaska from time to time.

To put teeth into the extensive warning system, there are two
forward fighter plane bases in Alaska. These are located at
King Salmon and Galena.

Less than a year ago there were only about forty jet fighter
planes stationed in the state, placed at the forward bases and
Elmendorf Air Force Base near Anchorage.

The fighters are supplemented by Nike-Hercules anti-aircraft
missile sites, ringing both Fairbanks and Anchorage.

The air defenses are bolstered by two Army battle groups,
one at Fort Richardson near Anchorage and one at Fort Wain-
wright near Fairbanks.

Except for a handful of Marines at the Kodiak and Adak
Naval bases, these are the only "real fighting personnel" in the
forty-ninth state.

Fort Greely, an extensive Army base near Big Delta is a
training ground and winter equipment testing center.

HAWAII'S DEFENSE-GEARED ECONOMY 4

The economic importance of defense in Hawaii is fully recog-
nized. It has become the greatest single factor affecting business,
income and employment.

Less obvious perhaps is the military importance of the econ-
omy of the Islands in strengthening defense potentials here. It
provides (1) skilled and semiskilled personnel (as maintenance
and repair men for ships, planes and military installations; as

* From Hawaii: Patterns of Island Growth; 1958 mid-year report. Bank of Hawaii.
Department of Business Research. Honolulu. '58. p 27-8. Reprinted by permission.

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 195

nurses and assistants in hospitals; and as accountants, statisticians
and clerks in records and supply offices) ; (2) manned equipment
for dredging operations and for the construction of installations
and military housing; (3) food and other locally produced items;
(4) reserve supplies of mainland products warehoused by local
firms; (5) links between military and local utility systems, thus
increasing potential capacity and supplying emergency services
when needed; and (6) a wide range of recreational facilities and
direct personal services for members of the Armed Forces.

In a crisis such aids can be increased manyfold as they were
during World War II. Thus the larger and stronger the economy,
the more it can contribute to the manpower, the materials' base
and the staying power of defense forces in the event of an
emergency.

This interdependence of military and economic strength is
recognized in Hawaii by a unique military-civilian organization
the "Kokua Council" comprised of high ranking military
officials and leading businessmen. It meets periodically for frank,
off-the-record conferences on local problems and has been a
potent factor in creating mutually helpful relations between the
military and civilian communities.

From the time Hawaii became a part of the United States
in 1900 to 1935 defense expenditures here were a minor factor in
Hawaiian business. In 1935 they amounted to only about one
tenth of the aggregate value of sugar and pineapple. During
1936-41, they rose sharply, and since then have been of primary
importance.

At present military personnel, civilian defense employees and
the dependents of both groups constitute approximately one
fourth of the population of the territory. The outward evidence
of this is the system of highways between Honolulu and the
primary defense installations by far the largest and most heavily
traveled in the territory.

Counting military personnel stationed here, one in four of
our entire population is thus directly dependent on defense for a
living and substantial numbers are indirectly and partially
dependent on it. Practically every wholesale, retail and service
enterprise on Oahu enjoys at least some patronage from military
or defense workers' families, and a number of large firms provide

THE HEFESIEHCE SHELF

goods or construction and maintenance services under military
contract.

In 1957 military expenditures in the territory totaled $308
million (more than the aggregate dollar volume of sugar, pine-
apple and minor exports) .

[By 1960, according to Hawaii: Planning for Economic
Growth, the 1961 annual economic report of the Bank of Hawaii
Department of Business Research, defense expenditures had risen
to $373 million and were still rising. The number of civilians
employed in the defense establishments had reached 24,200 in
June 1961, and the armed forces personnel totaled 53,000. Ed,]

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1950-61. R. C. Schmitt (Research Report 21) mimeo. The De-
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Hawaii. Department of Planning and Research. Military Statistics for

Hawaii, 1961-62. (Research Report 16) mimeo. The Department

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Hawaii. Department of Planning and Research. Population projections

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THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWASS 199

Hawaii. State Planning Office. Provisional estimates and projections of

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Hawaii book; story of our island paradise. J. G. Ferguson, Chicago.

'61.

Hulley, C. C. Alaska: past and present Bmfords. Portland, Ore. '59.
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*Kursh, Harry. This is Alaska. Prentice-Hall. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.

'61.
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*Masuoka, Jitsuichi and Valien, Preston, eds. Race relations: problems

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Lind.

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Palmer, Artis. There's no place like Nome. Morrow. New York ""63.

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'60.

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20 THE REFERENCE SHELF

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THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 201

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* United States. Department of Defense. Office of Armed Forces Infor-

mation and Education. Pocket guide to Alaska. (DOD Pam 2-9)
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*United States. Department of Defense. Office of Armed Forces Infor-
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ment Establishing a farm in Alaska. The Bureau. Washington 25,
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*United States. Library of Congress. Legislative Reference Service.
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Winslow, Kathryn. Alaska bound. Dodd, New York '60.

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PERIODICALS

America. 100:635-6. F. 28, *59. Hawaii, our 50th state. B. J. Hartung.

America. 107:661-2. S. 1, '62. Freeze-out in Alaska.

*American Bar Association Journal. 44:1147-50. D. *58. Alaska's herald-
ed constitution: the forty-ninth state sets an example. J. S. Hellen-
thal.

* American Bar Association Journal. 45:1145-8+. N. '59. The Hawaiian

constitution: a structure for good government. P. C. Bartholomew
and R. M. Kamins.

202 THE REFERENCE SHELF

American City. 75:121+. Ja. '60. Hawaii, the state without a city.

W. S. Foster.

American Forests. 65:12-134-. Jl. '59. Exploring Alaska. H. H. Bennett
American Forests. 66:14-16+. Ja. *60. Alaska. R. G. Lynch.
American Forests. 68:20-2+. Je. '62. Hawaii's newest park. John

Dengel.
American Forests. 69:28-9+. Ja. *63. Hop and jump surveying. E. W.

Shaw.

American Forests. 69:32-4+. Ja. J 63. Visit to a volcano. J. T. Harrold.
American Heritage. 11:10-14+. F. '60. Isles shall wait for his law.

Bradford Smith.
American Heritage. 12:44-7+. D. '60. Seward's wise folly. R. L.

Reynolds.
American Heritage. 12:64-79. F. '61. Billy Mitchell in Alaska. William

Mitchell.
American Heritage. 13:60-72+. D. '61. Captain Cook's American.

E. M. Halliday,
American Heritage. 13:74-5. F. '62. Billy Mitchell's prophecy; excerpt

from report of 1924. William Mitchell.

American Home. 61:11-14+. Ja. '59. We live in Alaska and love itl
*Americas. 13:10-13. S. '61. New Alaskan Eskimo. W. H. Oswalt
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 335:

38-41. My. '61. University of Hawaii orientation center. S. F.

McCabe.

Antiques. 77:576-7. Je. '60. Knapp paintings of Alaska. P. W. Inman.
Architectural Forum. 114:110-12. Je. '61. Capitol for the 50th state.
Architectural Record. 129:153-6. Je. '61. New capitol for the newest

state.

Atlantic Monthly. 210:73-8. S. '62. Alaska: last frontier. Paul Brooks.
Aviation Week and Space Technology. 71:43+. N. 16, '59. Hawaiian

bids for new Pacific routes. L. L. Doty.

Aviation Week and Space Technology. 75:115+. Ag. 14, '61. Alaska air-
lines to use, sell Lockheed 60s. A. Sherman.
Better Homes and Gardens. 40:20+. Ja. '62. What it's like to move to

Hawaii. Bob Krauss.
Business Week, p 140-2+. Mr. 14, '59. Hawaii: set to become an

island state.

Business Week, p 201-2. Je. 20, *59. Challenge to Hawaiian tycoon.
Business Week, p 168-70+. N. 28, '59. Mainlanders take over in

Hawaii.

Business Week, p 196+. Mr. 19, '60. Company store.
Business Week, p 141-2+. S. 17, '60. All-out union drive in Hawaii:

labor leaders are competing among one another to sign up the

160,000 unorganized workers.

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 203

Business Week, p 57-8+. O. 29, '60. Hawaii's boom keeps climbing.
Business Week, p 124-K O. 28, '61. Hawaii giant Jumps to East coast.
Business Week, p 98. O. 20, '62. In Hawaii's bars, it's ti for two;

liquor called okolehao.
Business Week p 81-2. F. 2, '63. Personal business: winter vacation

in Oahu.

Christian Century. 76:349. Mr. 25, '59. Hawaii honors its founders.
Christian Century. 76:565. My. 6, '59; 77:1390. N. 23, '60. News of

the Christian world.
Christian Century. 76:916. Ag. 12, 5 59. Hawaii's electorate makes good

start.
Christian Century. 80:54. Ja. 9; 80:374. Mr. 20, '63. News of the

Christian world.
Christian Science Monitor, p 11. Jl. 3, '58. Alaska: welcome! Hal

Painter.

Commonweal. 69:661-2. Mr. 27, '59. Hawaiian statehood.
Congressional Digest. 38:3-32. Ja. '59. Question of statehood for

Hawaii.

* Congressional Record. 105:6818-19. Ap. 27, '59. Military defense of

Alaska. Ernest Gruening; R. L. Neuberger.

* Congressional Record. 108:A7806-12. O. 19, '62. Four years of un-

precedented achievement the greatest progress in Alaskan history;

extension of remarks in the Senate, October 13, 1962. Ernest

Gruening.

Coronet. 48:136+. Je. '60. World's roughest police beat. C. E. Hinkson.
Current History. 36:241-2. Ap. '59. Alaska: the forty-ninth state;

Proclamation; Flag of the United States. D. D. Eisenhower.
Current History. 41:108-13. Ag. '61. Hawaii: equalization through

centralization. H. V. Everly.
Dance Magazine. 34:44-7. Ag. '60. Renascence in Hawaii. Janet

Faure.
Department of State Bulletin. 42:130-1. Ja. 25, '60. Secretary sends

report to Congress on East- West Center in Hawaii. C. A. Herter.
Esquire. 56:88-90. Ag. '61. Happiest Hawaiians; beach boys. Charlotte

Paul.
*Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (Progress Edition), p 32C. N. 28, '62.

Strategically, Alaska is first defense line.

Field & Stream. 64:62-6+. My. '59. Trailer trek to Alaska. Jack Parry.
*Financial Analysts Journal. 16:31-42. Ja.-F. '60. Alaska: the economic

outlook. Ivan Bloch.

Flying. 65:30-1+. D. '59. Is Alaska expendable? Dave Lewis.
Fortune. 60:139-43. D. '59. To Alaska through a rugged frontier.
*Fortune. 61:124-33+. Je. '60. Hawaii's a-poppin'. R. A. Smith.
Hobbies. 64:116-18. N. '59. Hawaii, our 50th state. Louise Collins.

204 THE REFERENCE SHELF

Hobbles. 66:112-13+. JL J 6L Hawaii: some early letters. D. H.

Hamilton.

Holiday. 26:26-454-. Ag. '59. Alaska. J. W. Bellah.
Holiday. 28:34-55+. JL '60. Hawaii. Robert Carson.
Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Ja. 29, '63. Annual progress edition [Articles

on all phases of Hawaii] .

Horticulture. 39:272. My. '61. Hawaii, our fiftieth state.
House & Garden. 116:34+. JL '59. Going places, finding things. Louise

Shattuck.
House Beautiful. 103:78+. S. J 6L Hawaii: a great state to be in.

Marion Gough.
*Indian Truth. 38:1-8. O. 9 61. Indian rights and wrongs in Alaska.

T. B. Hetzel.
Life. 46:14-21. Ja. 26, *59. Living at 30 below: Alaska thrives amid

winter gloom.
Life. 46:37-40. Mr. 16, '59. Happy caravan of modern pioneers;

Detroiters bound for Alaska.

Life. 46:58-72. Mr. 23, '59. Hawaii: beauty, wealth, amiable people.
Life. 46:75-6. Mr. 23, '59. Pros and cons of Island statehood. Peter

Bunzel.
Life. 46:24-5. Mr. 30, '59. Sorely beset 5 59ers carry on; band of

Detroiters.
Life. 46:141-3. Ap. 20, '59. '59ers find promised land; pioneers from

Detroit

Life. 47:41-2+. Ag. 17, '59. Unique Hawaiian look in politics.
Life. 47:37-40. Ag. 31, '59. Hawaii's sunny summer school.
Life. 47:49-52. N. 30, '59. '59ers, now thirteen dig in for winter.
Life. 48:30-1. Ap. 25, '60. Census trek in newest state.
Life, 48:32-5. Ap. 25, '60. For every enumerator hard-to-avoid perils.
Life, 50:87-95. F. 10, '61. Dillinghams of Hawaii.
Living Wilderness. 77:37. Summer '61. Wilderness first policy ad-
vocated.
Look. 23:29-31. My. 12, '59. Hawaii, state-to-be where many bloodlines

blend in beauty. G. B. Leonard, Jr.

McCalFs. 89:228D. O. '61. McCall's visits Hawaii. Horace Sutton.
Mademoiselle. 50:126-9+. Ap. '60. Hedonists in Hawaii; summer

school. R. Dionne.

Mademoiselle. 51:143-5+. My. '60. Unfettered life. M. B. Parkinson.
Mademoiselle. 56:18+. Ja. '63. Let's travel.
Mademoiselle. 56:64+. Ja. '63. Hawaii's neighbor islands. Katharine

Davis.

Military Review. 41:44-56. F. '61. Alaska: Gibraltar of the North.
Willard Pearson.

THE HEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 235

Monthly Labor Review. 84:459-62. My. '61. Government and bargain-
ing on the Alaska railroad. E. M. Fitch.
Monthly Labor Review. 85:296-300. Mr. '62. Indexes of living costs

for Alaskan cities. J. C. Brackett
Motor Boating. 107:46-7-4-. My. '61. Icebergs in your ice box. Jean

Niemeier.
Motor Boating. 110:42-4+. D. '62. Cruising the Hawaiian Islands,

family style. Marian Rumsey.

Nation. 189:166-9. S. 26, '59. Alaska's '59ers. O'Carroll Colvin,
National Business Woman. 38:10-11+. Jl. '59. Fiftieth state. Pauline

King.

National Education Association Journal. 48:32-3. Ap. *59. Alaska.
National Education Association Journal. 48:32-3. My. *59. 50th star.
National Geographic Magazine. 115:792-823. Je. '59. Volcanic fires

of the 50th state. P. A. Zahl.
National Geographic Magazine. 116:42-83. JL '59. Alaska proudly joins

the Union. E. H. Gruening.
National Geographic Magazine. 118:1-45. Jl. '60. Hawaii, U.SA.

Frederick Simpich, Jr.
Natural History. 69:6-23. Ja. '60. Landscapes of far Alaska. T. M.

Griffiths.
Natural History. 69:36-47. My. '60. First Hawaiians: Polynesian

pioneers. Edward Joesting.

New Republic. 140:8. Mr. 23, '59. Idiocy as a catalyst. G. W. Johnson.
New York Times, p 1+. Ag. 22, '59. Hawaii becomes the 50th state;

new flag shown. W. H. Lawrence.
*New York Times, p 1+. O. 16, '60. Hawaii is termed governmental

paradise. Gene Smith.
New York Times, p 1+. Mr. 13, '61. Hawaii drafts 703-million plan

of development over 20 years.
New York Times, p 38. N. 9, '62. Voters reject proposal to move

capital from Juneau.

New York Times, p 125. N. 11, '62. Only 17 of Michigan home-
steaders who went to Susitna Valley in '59 still there.
New York Times Magazine, p 82-3. F. 15, '59. Faces of the 49th;

photographs. S. Carrighar.
*New York Times Magazine, p 12+. Mr. 15, '59. Communique from

our Alaskan outpost. H. W. Baldwin.

Reply with rejoinder, p 62. Ap. 26, '59. E. L. Bartlett and others.

*New York Times Magazine, p 14+. Ap. 19, *59. 'Aloha' for the

fiftieth state. J. A. Michener.

New Yorker. 35:20-2. Ag. 29, '59. Our own Baedeker.
New Yorker. 36:98+. Ap. 2, '60. Reporter at large. E. J. Kahn, Jr.
*News Explorer, p 2. Ap. 17, '59. Hawaii, our fiftieth state.

Reprinted in this book: Map of Hawaii.

206 THE EEFEEENCE SHELF

Newsweek. 53:29-32. F. 23, '59. Enchanting state.

Newsweek. 53:28-9. Mr. 23, '59. We all haoles.

Newsweek 53:24. Je. 22, '59. Old island custom; Hawaiian territorial
legislature

Newsweek 54:21-2. JL 13, '59. No fifty on the stump.

Newsweek 54:22-3. Ag. 10, '59. Surprise: three to two.

Newsweek 54:19-20. Ag. 31, '59. Yankee Doodle dandy.

Newsweek 54:68-70-f-. S. 7, '59. Hawaii's progress and prospects.
R. E. Cubbedge.

Newsweek 54:60. S. 14, '59. Map-making.

Newsweek 57:29. Ja. 16, '61. Facing the cold facts.

Newsweek 58:72-3. JL 31, '61. History, hula, hoopla; summer school.

Newsweek 59:84. Ap. 2, '62. Trouble in Hawaii; East-West center.

Newsweek. 59:39-40. Ap. 9, '62. Eye-catching race.

Newsweek. 59:106. Ap. 16, '62. Ukuleles are not enough.

Newsweek 59:25. Ap. 30, '62. Paradise lost; crack down on kites.

Newsweek 59:72+. Ap. 30, '62. Pineapple squeeze.

Newsweek 60:22. D. 10, '62. Manaua's mercy; Hawaii's second
drought in two years.

Parliamentary Affairs. 13:489-508. Autumn '60. Hawaii: the fiftieth
state. Norman Meller.

Personnel and Guidance Journal. 39:292-9. D. '60. Survey of student
attitudes towards campus activities at the University of Hawaii.
R. A. Kalish and O. J. Bartos.

Popular Mechanics. 112:57-61. JL '59. Alaska's flying bus line. G. X.
Sand.

Popular Mechanics. 112:84-90+. S. '59. Other side of paradise. R. M.
Botts.

Popular Mechanics. 112:117-22+. N. '59. Toughest railroad you tax-
payers own. G. X. Sand.

Public Health Reports. 76:1063-79. D. '61. Hawaiian health.

Saturday Evening Post. 231:19-21+. My. 2, '59. Prosperity hits para-
dise. F. J. Taylor.

Saturday Evening Post. 232:10. S. 12, '59. Hawaii can sponsor seminars
as well as beauty contests.

Saturday Evening Post. 235:26-9. Ag. 25, '62. Hawaii's hustling shep-
herd. F. J. Taylor.

Saturday Review. 42:62-5. My. 16, '59. Honshu, Hawaii, home. Horace
Sutton.

Saurday Review. 42:35-7. S. 5, '59. Alaska: new gold rush. Horace
Sutton.

Saturday Review. 42:32-3. S. 12, *59. Anchorage away. Horace Sutton.

Saturday Review. 42:34-5. O. 3, '59. Paradise in limbo. Horace Sutton.

THE NEW STATES: ALASKA AND HAWAII 207

Saturday Review. 43:44+. N. 12, '60. Where the twain will meet.

Horace Sutton,
Saturday Review. 43:50. N. 12, *60. Midnight in Kailua. Daniel

Taradash.
Saturday Review. 45:39-41. D. 8, '62. Hawaii is to hear. Andre

Kostelanetz.
Science Digest. 53:58-65. My. '63. Henry Kaiser: new project, Hawaii-

Kai. Leona Elliott.

Science News Letter. 75:6. Ja. 3, '59. Southeast Alaska rises.
Science News Letter. 76:46. Jl. 18, '59. Citizens of Hawaii outlive

mainlanders.

Science News Letter. 79:311. My. 20, '61. Ancient Hawaiians.
*Senior Scholastic. 56:10-11. My. 17, '50. Alaska: next stop statehood?

Reprinted in this book: Map of Alaska, p 10.
Senior Scholastic. 74:8-9+. Ja. 30, '59. 50th star for Hawaii? pro and

con discussion.

Senior Scholastic. 74:16. Ap. 3, '59. Hawaii wins our fiftieth star.
Senior Scholastic. 74:12-15. Ap. 10, '59. Aloha Hawaiil
Senior Scholastic (Teacher Edition). 76:19T. Mr. 2, '60. Lush land

of luaus and leis. Naomi Rmehart.
*Social Legislation Information Service Bulletin (Washington Bulletin).

82:540-7. N. 25, '58. 49th state.

*Social Process. 25:12-14. 5 61-'62. Hawaii in the race relations con-
tinuum of the Pacific. A. W. Lind.
Sports Illustrated. 16:58-65. Mr. 12, '62. Risk and challenge of the

adventure road. Dolly Connelly.
Sports Illustrated. 17:66-70+. Ag. 20, '62. Outer islands: miracles and

prophecies. Gilbert Rogin.

* State Government. 31:202-8. Autumn '58. Alaska's struggle for state-
hood. R. B. Atwood.
*State Government. 31:215-19. Autumn '58. Meaning of statehood

to Alaska. T. B. Stewart.
*State Government. 32:146-61. Summer '59. Hawaii: the aloha state.

W. F. Quinn; Statehood and Hawaii's people. J. A. Burns; What

statehood means to Hawaii. R. M. Kamins.

Reprinted in this book: What statehood means to Hawaii. R. M. Kamins.
p 156-61.

State Government 33:210-16. Autumn '60. Aloha, malahini C. S.

James and K. K. Lau.
State Government. 34:226-32. Autumn '61. State planning in Hawaii.

Frank Lombardi.

Sunset. 124:41+. Mr. '60. Long drive to Alaska.
Sunset. 126:26+. Mr. '61. Around the bend, wilderness; Wailua River

excursion, Hawaii.
Sunset. 128:82+. My. *62. Bike cruising in the islands.

2S THE REFEREHCE SHELP

Sunset 129:16. S. '62. Honolulu's big aloha on boat day.

Time. 74:12-24. Ag. 10, '59. Big change.

Time. 75:25. Ap. 25, '60. First year on the Susitna; Fifty-niners.

Time. 75:42+. My. 2, '60. Upgrading in Alaska.

Time. 78:46-1-. Jl. 21, *61, Awakening in Hawaii.

Time. 80:21. O. 5, '62. Big Ben S young Danny.

Time. 80:82. O. 19, '62. Flight of the five.

Travel. 112:22-6. D. '59. Hawaii's new state. Peter Espie.

Travel. 115:54-6+. Ap. '61. Editor's report: Hawaii. M. M. Davis.

Travel 118:40-4. O. *62. By freighter around Hawaii. T. B. Lesure.

Travel. !19:6~4. Ap. '63. New route to Alaska; marine highway.

U.S. News & World Report 46:101-3. F. 13, '59. If Hawaii becomes

the 50th state.
U.S. News & World Report. 46:52-3. Mr. 23 S '59. Now that Hawaii

is to be a state.
U.S. News & World Report. 46:78-81. Mr. 30, '59. Sun, sugar, people,

pineapples.
U.S. News & World Report. 46:80-1. Mr. 30, '59. Where Hawaii stands

on taxes, labor, races; interview. W. F. Quinn.
U.S. News & World Report. 47:67-70. Jl. 13, '59. State of Alaska one

year after.
U.S. News & World Report. 50:76-9. Ja. 9, '61. Big boom in the

50th state.
U.S. News & World Report. 51:90-1. Jl. 17, '61. Thinking of driving

to the 49th state?
U.S. News World Report. 51:50-2. S. 4, '61. Fresh look at the

49th state and how ifs making out
*U.S. News & World Report 52:65-8. Mr. 19, '62. 49th state; three

years later.
Wall Street Journal. 158:14-. Jl. 27, '61. Alaska's economy: it's hard

hit by shifts in defense emphasis, high cost of statehood. R. ].

Schrick.
Wall Street Journal. 159:1+. Je. 26, '62. Clouds over Hawaii: tourists

spend less; sugar, fruit industries slip in world markets; construc-
tion activity off; key prop: military outlays. N. C. Miller, Jr.
Wall Street Journal. 160:1+. Jl. 12, '62. Well-developed state of

Hawaii is stirred by land reform issue. N. C. Miller, Jr.
Yale Review. 52:72-89. O. '62. Oil barrels and muk-tuk: an Arctic

year. Daniel McKinley.

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